Amy Frazier and KOIN 6 News Staff
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — With a stated goal of making the outdoors more accessible to everyone, the Oregon State Parks Foundation is teaming up with 2 car-sharing services to have state park day-use parking passes in all their cars.
ReachNow and Zipcar will have the free parking passes and state park guides in all of their car-sharing services throughout the Portland metro. This is the second year Zipcar has taken part in this program, but greatly expanded from its 2017 effort.
Cars from both services can be reserved by the hour or the day.
From tidepools at the coast to disc golf at Champoeg State Park, there are many adventures within a 2-hour drive of Portland.
In 2017, there were more than 50 million day-use visits to the Oregon State Parks. But the foundation said transportation can be a barrier to this kind of outdoor recreation.
ReachNow said all the BMW 3-series and BMW X1 SAV vehicles in their Oregon and Seattle fleets will have the state park passes by Memorial Day weekend.
“When you’re ready to go, you can open up the app, you search for a BMW,” said Tim Navarrette of ReachNow. “All our BMW X1’s and 3-series have the state park passes in them.”
Navarrette said it’s an easy way for people to get to the state parks and help out, as well.
“For every trip that’s taken to an Oregon State Park, we’re donating money to the Oregon State Parks Foundation,” he said. “We’re doing it in the Seattle area and Portland, as well.”
The company will donate up to $25,000 to the Oregon or Washington State Parks Foundations this summer.
Some Zipcars have a bike rack, making it easy to take your bike with you on an adventure.
“I think it’s a great option for people who live downtown, don’t have cars and do a lot of public transportation,” said Heather Anderson, who works in Portland.