Disclaimer: The below, my first post on this forum, sounds like so much kvetsching, so let me just state that I am contemplating coming back to the D, and so am not just slamming the city for not being as suave & cool as some other cities.

I have always wondered why Detroit does not have any shared car services. Ann Arbor not only has ZipCar, it also has a coop or two, and some kind of an outfit that's backed by UHaul, if I remember correctly. I totally get that much of the city is not so dense that car sharing makes so much sense that it is just screaming you in the face [[although it has residents who are struggling financially and could stand to benefit). But what about downtown and midtown? All those people living and working there need their own car? WSU, GM, the government, and Detroit's other functioning businesses and institutions surely don't maintain fleets of cars for employee use on short trips around the area, right?

I lived in Cadillac Square in Downtown Detroit, up until 2 years ago, and the expense of parking was a major PITA. All those people in Cadillac Square, the Lofts at Woodward Center, Millender, Trolley Plaza/Washington Square, they all need to pay $150/month in order to park their car during the week as they walk to work at Campus Martius or the Renaissance Center? That's just to get in the game; for the privilege of being able to drive out to necessary shopping on a Saturday afternoon. It just doesn't make sense to me, and it was a total frustration at the time I lived there [[one of those dangit, this place could be so much more than it is things).

Anybody have any thoughts on why this is not in place already, or what I failed to see when I still [[briefly) lived there? Whatever happened to Via Car, which apparently went under shortly before I got there?

<ok, I gave it away, I lived there from 2005-2008>