The pay-as-you-go car
Imagine having a car every time you need it but without having to own it? Imagine not having to pay petrol, insurance or maintenance, to not pay a penny for it when you’re not using it.
Flexcar
(US: Seattle, Portland, Washington, LA, San Diego, Chicago)
“Flexcar is the nation’s first and largest car-sharing service… A personal Flexcar membership costs only $40 a year. Rates are $7-$10 per hour and $35 – $90 per day. These rates include full insurance, gas, maintenance, cleaning, parking and 24-hour emergency service. Flexcar members help our environment and community. Using Flexcar decreases traffic on the road, helps relieve parking congestion, and reduces vehicle miles traveled. It is estimated that each Flexcar replaces six cars on the road. Our fleet uses environmentally friendly vehicles, with increased miles per gallon and low toxic emissions.”
streetcar
(UK: London, Brighton, Bristol, Oxford)
“It costs just £4.95 per hour, and for longer bookings we have discounted 24 hour, 7 day and monthly rates. All you need is a smartcard, which you get once you’ve registered with us. Lifetime membership costs £25 – we don’t charge any monthly or annual fees.”
olivia
HAH! Peek-a-boo!
Hans
Nope, Quiddity, the sad thing is that they have not even realized that they have a pun in Dam et al. That’s my own self deprecating joke to make the point that latin abbreviations in speech are silly.
I write academic papers in oceanography (marine biology, plankton ecology and evolution). Try a goggle search on Hans G. Dam.
Quiddity
They only do it to annoy because they know it teases! What do you write articles about?
The suffix in question would be -ology. I like the word affix which can be applied any word modifying addition.
Hans
Yes, yanks pronounce the final s in mathematics.
And I think you nailed the issue on the head, with the suffix. Nouns ending in ich versus those ending in gy (is that a suffix?).
OK, here’s another thing that drives me crazy–which I see a lot among academics– using abbreviations like et al., e.g., and i.e., in speech. I see no point at all in using such abbreviations in speech. It’s just as easy to say and others, for example, and in other words, respectively. I guess I’ll get really incensed whern people start saying etc instead if et cetera. See, I must confess that I am really annoyed at the use of et al., particularly if applied in speech to a work of mine since my last name is Dam (“oh, that’s the article by Dam et al.”, ha, ha). Cheers
Quiddity
I like it when people make me think about these things.
Maybe there is something about the suffix ‘-ic’ which makes us want to retain the plural marker. We don’t speak of biologies or chemistries but we do have linguistics,mathematics, physics, semantics, semiotics etc. I agree that these are probably best regarded as collective nouns e.g. mathematics is the umbrella term for arithmetic, geometry, algebra etc.
Do US speaks keep the ‘s’ if they use the longer form of math?
Hans
Ah, Quiddity, Spanish is my native language, and I use american English since I live in the States. I must have goofed on the French. I thought it was la mathematique, but it’s been a long time since I used French. In Spanish, it is clearly la matematica. The plural Spanish form, las matematicas, is arcane. The point I was trying to make is that I found the plural use of the noun in English peculiar (as why do we not speak of the chemistries or the biologies?, for instance). See one way to think about the plural issue is if the speaker is thiking of the noun as a set (as in the mathematical sciences, so mathematics makes sense). Another way is simply to think of the etimology. Since the greek form of mathematics ends in S, that could explain the S at the end of the word in English. As for why Americans abbreviate math, instead of maths, beats me.
Sorry, I missed the parody in your use of me and my buddy. It’s just that Americans constantly use that and it drives me nuts. I am always correcting my own kids about that (although they are only 10 and 7 years old). But when I hear college-educated (I guess in Britain you would say university instead of college) folks saying that (and not intending it as parody), well…that takes my goat (that is a nice american expression for you).
Quiddity
Hmm. Well, the Webster dictionary would say that, given that it is an American dictionary of English.
Are you a native speaker of British English Hans? I have never heard anyone who is a British English speaker use the term ‘math’ outside of the imported phrase ‘do the math’. Also, my French is not great but I thought mathematique was the adjective and les mathematiques was the noun. I don’t know what that proves, though, as comparison with a Romance language is somewhat suprious. I would find it interesting to know if cultural differences between use of mathematique/s exist in French, as they do in English.
I apologise for my offensive grammar. My rationale for this useage is as follows;
-‘Standard English’ applies to written English and I wanted to create the impression of spoken, rather than formal English.
-The informal tone is used as a parody of SA’s work.
-The grammar of a language is a constantly changing entity and “X and me go way back” is a commonly accepted construction.
however, you can tell from all the excuses that I’m not entirely comfortable with this construction. Please don’t be too upset – I won’t do it again! 😉
Hans
Ah, I need to proof read before I push send. Above, still instead of stil and physic instead of tphysic. Sorry, I am a lousy at typing.
Hans
Math, maths…bristish versus american usage. My Webster dictionary shows usage of mathematics both in the plural and singular form as accepted forms. Same goes for physic (the science). Now, the interesting thing to me is that the modern spelling of these words would stil remain plural in English. We do not talk about the biologies, or the chemistries as sciences. Indeed, in most Romance languages, mathematics and physics are singular (matematica, in Spanish, and mathematique, in French, etc). Even more interesting, tphysic (singluar) is the arcane form in English. Quiddity, you are the linguist, go figure. And, by the way, Quiddity, it is X and I (not X and me) go way back, at least in standard English (I just took a look at your blog, and found that bit of offensive grammar).
Quiddity
i hate maths anyway
Quiddity
also, I don’t know why I missed the ‘e’ out of mathematics! It’s obviously too early for me.
Quiddity
I wonder why English English speakers say ‘maths’ and US English speakers say ‘math’. The latter sounds so odd to me. I suppose both make sense – strictly speaking ‘mathmatics’ is a plural noun so we keep the ‘s’ to indicate this, however in common useage ‘mathmatics’ functions as a singular noun so dropping the ‘s’ is logical too.Not that logic is the deciding factor in matters of language. Oh, I seem to be rambling again…
ken
id go for it if they were pay as you go ferraris
nathan
AHHH CAIT! What a grand question…let’s do the math and see…
Let’s say we need to go 300 miles on a day trip to Reno from Botswalo, New Carolina. A rental car from Enterprise would cost you approximately $20, if you’re a good customer. Add to that the price of gas (2.50/gal x [300mi/25mpg]) that’s now $50, plus the $26 / day they charge for insurance plus the $15 you’ll pay for the parking garage that day, you end up with $91.
For that price you could have hopped in your Prius and driven the trip for only $40 for the whole day. Of course, there’s also the $40 a year membership but even with that you’ve got a cheaper ticket than the rental car deal – they pay for insurance (so you don’t even need to have your own personal insurance at all!), gas, parking, everything.
This is definitely what we’re doing once we get to Portland. It only makes sense. Plus it encourages you to walk, bike or take public transportation. At this point, we can’t muck about with driving cars anymore. It needs to stop immediately. My son’s children aren’t going to have a planet otherwise.
I will kill you with mustard gas if you don’t comply. Or if I can’t get it in gas form, I’ll just kill you with mustard.
But ignoring that, the numbers don’t lie.
quiddity
This would be a good idea for me because I walk as much as possible and only use a car if absolutely necessary.
Cait
That’s cool. I’ll bet that would work in any large city. But, it’s not cheaper than a rental car, like Enterprise, is it?