Greg Tanski

pittsburgh

I'm a 21-year-old student studying architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and living in Shadyside. I'm heading into my fifth year of a five-year program (it's designed that way, I promise). I was born in Buffalo, NY and lived my entire life there until moving to Pittsburgh for school. I've since grown to love the city, especially how easy it is to get around. I play hockey at Carnegie Mellon and enjoy biking. While I've relied on my bike and Port Authority buses frequently for short trips, I've had a car in Pittsburgh recently for trips that are difficult or impossible to make by bus, whether they be out of the range of the Port Authority or errands that require transporting large things. Zipcar seems like it will be a perfect solution for me, and I'm looking forward to trying it.

08/11/2009

This week I'm proud to say I was completely car-free, aside from a couple trips in friends' cars. My bike and feet were able to take me anywhere I needed to go. I'm almost certain now that as soon as possible, I will be getting rid of the car I have in Pittsburgh. The flexibility of Zipcar has been great. I've always been able to get one when I needed, the time-extension by phone couldn't be simpler, and the availability of different models (especially the pickup truck) have made life easy. Helping friends move furniture was a breeze thanks to Zipcar.

08/05/2009

I returned earlier today from my only Zipcar trip of the week, which was to pick up a friend from the airport. The car was left with less than a 1/4 tank when I got in it, but fortunately the re-fueling was simpler than I thought it would be; I got a full tank in there without any hassle.

This week, I made a trip downtown to meet a friend for lunch by bike and saw someone moving the Zipcar sign (where the car had been taken out) to park there; he was in and out and moved it back, but it got me to thinking. A few times when I've reserved Zipcars I've biked to pick them up, and have found it difficult to find a good place to lock my bike. If instead of the metal sign/space holders there were a permanent single-bike rack like the ones around Pittsburgh with a sign attached to it, I think that'd be pretty cool. I'm an architecture student, not an industrial design one, but I'd even design the thing if Zipcar were interested in the idea.

07/29/2009

This week I made a couple trips with a Zipcar, using one to help a friend move and another to take a friend to the airport. It's been great trying out the different cars! Both the Mazda 3 and the Honda Element were fun to drive. I also made a few medium-distance trips, ones that I normally would have driven for, by bike. I took a bike ride to the waterfront, and probably won't be doing that again... from Shadyside, Beechwood Blvd. is a great route for 90% of the trip, but Browns Hill Road was very scary; lots of traffic, tight lanes, and impatient drivers. The ride there wasn't too bad, but the steep hill on the way back made it difficult to travel even close to the speed of traffic. While I had already used my bike for shorter trips, I've enjoyed using it for medium-distance ones; it's somewhat liberating.

07/22/2009

So far, the first week hasn't been too difficult for me. I typically bike to work anyhow, so the biggest change has just been avoiding the urge to drive rather than bike somewhere in the evenings. With good reflectors and lights on my bike, I've enjoyed evening biking to friends' houses, the movies, or trips to the grocery store. I was able to use one of the pickup truck Zipcars to help my friend move some furniture as well as to move some things for work, which was very convenient; what would have otherwise been multiple trips was only one, and some large objects simply wouldn't have fit in my car. I'm enjoying the low-car lifestyle so far!