Community Car (www.communitycar.com) has the same kind of scheme in Madison. I considered using it,

Yes cabs are expensive and in some cities very expensive. Sometimes when I travel, I think about renting a car but I only need it for a few hours, so I am better victoria hotel amsterdam off jumping in a cab and not dealing with a car and hotel parking (which in some major cities is a fortune!)
In the next few weeks Enterprise Rent-A-Car said that all eight of its Manhattan stores will offer hourly rentals. In addition, Enterprise offers hourly rentals in seven other cities — Washington, Seattle, Chicago, victoria hotel amsterdam Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia victoria hotel amsterdam and Portland, OR.
Neither company rents by the hour from airport locations which makes some sense, since you probably wouldn’t want to return the car at the airport. Hourly rates start at about $8.75 for the smallest cars before taxes and fees. Daily rentals for compact cars in Manhattan start about $80 on weekdays before taxes and fees. So there is a huge savings if you only need the car for a few hours. (Not to mention the savings of not having to park at the hotel overnight in New York, which could be another $45.00.)
I didn’t realize it, but two companies, Seattle-based Flexcar and Boston-based Zipcar started the hourly rental business several years ago in large cities, hoping to draw people who don t own cars like New York City where over 75% of people don’t own a car. I did spend a few minutes on the Flexcar and the Zipcar websites and found them easy to navigate and some very cool features.
When I lived in Seattle, I knew several people who took advantage of Flexcar. There were pick up locations all over the city, so it was truly convenient if you worked or lived downtown. Once you factor in the annual membership, daily (or hourly) rate, it s not cheaper than renting from a car rental place, but you can t beat the convenience of finding cars located all throughout the Seattle metro area. I think it s great the the agencies are figuring out there s a market for this, but they could learn some lessons from Flexcar.
Community Car (www.communitycar.com) has the same kind of scheme in Madison. I considered using it, but didn t in the end. I still think it s a good idea, but they really need to do a better job at targeting the service at people who NEED it rather than who think it s cool. Funnily enough the one time I would have really used the service was from an airport. I didn t want to rent a car the whole time I was in Phoenix, but the taxi to and from the airport cost nearly as much as a rental car would have cost.
As a New Yorker that doesn t own a car, I ve followed this trend since day one. Hertz s new entry, however, cannot be booked online, only through a speech recognition system and then you have to get a call back. Luckily (or unluckily), I travel a lot for work, so with Hertz s great loyalty program, I usually have a free day/weekend voucher for personal use when I need one.