OVER the course of the last semester I have been working for an electronic music company downtown. My Tuesday/Thursday mornings all look the same - rent a Zip Car from LMU's campus, drive the 405 to the 10, exit 5th street, left on Bixel, Right on 5th, reach the garage, punch the code, enter, complete various tasks for 4 hours, exit the garage, right on 5th, left on Lucas, jump on the 10, crawl down the 405, exit at Howard Hughes and return the car to LMU's bluff-top campus. The only thing that varies from week to week is the type of car in which I make the journey (which is dependent on which cars have yet to be reserved; random chance). I have noticed that Angelenos don't take too kindly to someone driving what they see as a 'rental car' traversing the winding 10; they don't want to read "wheels when you want them" (Zipcar's slogan) while tightening their grip around the steering wheel-shredding 405. When I drive a car with more advertising, I get more honks, more middle fingers, and feel the need to blend in. Oppositely, when I rent the cars with fewer advertisements I in fact feel that I have acquired some sort of agency -- that I can now drive like all other Angelenos, as a direct result of NOT having the Zipcar slogan slapped onto my back bumper. I feel priveleged, lucky, that I get to travel the LA freeways in an fleet of data-collecting motorized boxes! I can literally change cars like many do clothes, giving me the opportunity to not only try on different personalities and characteristics - but also gauge how others react to me...Zip Zip.
Photo: ZipCar Logo
-- Ryan Cavalier
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