A new partnership between Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the University will make rental cars available to students in a cheap and environmentally sustainable way.

A project of the Parking and Transportation Services department, the WeCar program, as it is known, allows students over the age of 18 to rent cars for hourly rates of 10-12 dollars.

WeCar is also open to University faculty and employees and offers rental cars at all times.

Although the program is open to all students over the age of 18, students under the age of 20 need to receive parental consent before they can participate in it.

This program is new to the St. Louis area, but is just one of many car-lending programs that exist throughout the country.

Other programs, such as Zipcar, which operates at 33 universities across the country at schools such as Princeton, MIT, Harvard and the University of Chicago, have been huge successes.

At these schools, the car-lending program has reduced parking and driving congestion.

Minimizing the number of students who commute to and from campus is especially important in lieu of the Highway 40/I-64 closures that are ongoing in St. Louis.

“While many employees and students wanted to explore alternate modes of transportation for commuting, such as public transportation, biking or carpooling, they had a problem if they needed a vehicle during the day for a meeting, an errand or to respond to a family emergency,” said Lisa Underwood, director of the Parking & Transportation Services. “We saw this program as a great way to address that problem.”

As part of the University’s commitment to the environment, the WeCar program only offers environmentally friendly hybrid cars that emit less carbon pollution and have greater gas mileage than typical cars.

The two available vehicles include the Hybrid Toyota Prius, a sedan, and the Hybrid Ford Escape, a sports utility vehicle.

“A key part of our university sustainability initiative is to assess our greenhouse gas emissions and our impact on global climate change, and then implement solutions that will reduce them,” said Matthew Malten, assistant vice chancellor for campus sustainability.

The hope is that there will be a diminished need to have a car on campus, which will lead to fewer cars on the road and more effective use of public transportation like the MetroLink.

The cars are located in four locations across campus designed to provide convenient access to the greatest number of people; cars are available on the South 40 near Liggett House, in the Snow Way Garage, east of Brookings Hall near Givens Hall and near the Mallinckrodt Student Center.

Customers can register and reserve time slots online; fuel and maintenance are included in the hourly rate, and the cars can be kept overnight for an additional fee.

Aside from the benefit that the program provides for commuters, the program is meant to be a convenience for anyone living on campus.

“WeCar provides students with the freedom of having a personal automobile at their fingertips without the hassle and expense of having a car on campus,” said Underwood.

Students can register for the program online by visiting http://wecar.com/wustl.

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