Should I rent a Zipcar during Covid?
April 25, 2020 10:12 AM   Subscribe

I need a car for the day (Tho not ABSOLUTELY essential). I am concerned about any previous people in the car. They claim to wipe down the cars. I talked to them to see if I could get car no one has rented for a day or 2. They say that is possible. I can clean it also when I get in. What do you think?
posted by ebesan to Grab Bag (8 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you have wipes and can wipe down the surfaces you are going to touch, I think you will be fine.

If you have one that hasn't been rented for two days you are completely fine.
posted by Brockles at 10:35 AM on April 25, 2020 [3 favorites]


I think you wear gloves and a mask and brings some wipes to wipe the main spots, and drive the car. It's what I did last week. Also, you (and I) are not the only one's - I have a suspicion, or I was guessing, more appropriately, that these aren't getting used as much as otherwise.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:19 AM on April 25, 2020


I've been renting a zip car about once a week during this covid crisis. I bring about 2-3 Lysol wipes per side (2-3 for me, 2-3 more if I have a passenger) and allow about 5 minutes to wipe down everything I'm going to be touching in the car. Don't forget the seat belt and seat adjusters. The stuff right in front of your eyes is easy (steering wheel, gear shift), think about where you put your hands without thinking/looking.

Then I just try to be extra good about not touching my face while in the car, and sanitize my hands after getting out before touching anything else.

I've certainly seen signs that someone else has also been cleaning the inside of the car, although whether that's other clients or zipcar staff is unknown.
posted by tiamat at 11:49 AM on April 25, 2020


I rented a Zipcar a two weeks ago and it was a unusually unpleasant experience (dirty cars, 45 minutes on the phone with CSR, and I had to get into and clean FIVE cars before finding a car that either worked or had gate cards so I could leave the garage). Can you monitor on the app the car/location you're thinking of renting for a few days to see if it's being rented? That will tell you whether someone else has been in it, but also if it's operational. Be prepared to bring your own disinfectant and be prepared that Zipcar will likely not have cleaned it.

I rolled down all the windows and didn't run the A/C in addition to wiping everything down. Don't forget to wipe down the turn signal, the buttons for the windows and the doors, the side view and rear view window buttons, and the keys, and garage card and gas cards.

Take a look on Twitter at the accounts for @Zipcar, @askzipcar, and see if there's an account for your local area to see if anyone is having issues with them where you are.
posted by vivzan at 11:57 AM on April 25, 2020


Personally, I find that gloves are counterproductive. You still can't touch your face. You have to take them off to touch anything clean. They aren't always that easy to get the same one back on. You have to dispose of them as if dirty. I am leaning toward tracking when my hands are presumed dirty and washing or sanitizing when I want them clean. Now if there was no way to clean my skin, that would be a different story.
posted by hypnogogue at 1:43 PM on April 25, 2020 [3 favorites]


In all honesty, the point of wiping things down is so you can touch them with your bare hands afterwards. If you plan to wear gloves anyway I am not sure I’d even do that. Likewise, the masks won’t protect you much from any airborne articles but they may reduce the exposure others have to what comes out of your mouth/nose. So I’d probably just wear gloves, use the car, not touch my face and use copious amounts of hand sanitizer on getting out of the car after discarding the gloves. I’d carry new gloves for each leg of the trip.
posted by koahiatamadl at 5:31 PM on April 25, 2020 [1 favorite]


I think all of the answers about wiping it down being sufficient are correct. But additionally, if you really wanted the security of it having been empty for an additional day, you could rent it for a day ahead of when you want it - so that you have it rented, but sitting empty.

Realistically, you could also just book your rental at like 6am - so no one would have used it, in all likelihood, since late evening the night before (since nothing is open late.)

And finally, while there is certainly data about COVID staying on surfaces for days, it's important to take those studies with the additional knowledge that they're talking about detectable virus, not judging likelihood of infection. On all surfaces at more than 12 hours of non-use, more than half of the virus decayed. See https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973 - it's important to know that the scales in that chart are logarithmic, not linear - when a virus titer goes from 10^4, to 10^3, that means that 90% of the virus has been inactivated.
posted by mercredi at 7:48 AM on April 26, 2020 [1 favorite]


Squirt everything with 60+% alcohol, let sit one minute, wipe.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:44 PM on April 26, 2020


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