Okey-dokey, Skokie: Say hello to your new I-GO Honda CR-V

Behind the scenes, I-GO has spent months paving the way for suburban expansion beyond our well established presence in Evanston and Oak Park. This week, those plans become
reality: I-GO is adding cars in Skokie, Wilmette, and Forest Park. We’re psyched about it. And we hope our new suburban friends are, too. We’d like to give a big shout-out, especially, to the Village of Skokie and Skokie Public Library for their help in introducing
car sharing to Skokie. Here are are newest vehicles and locations:

Skokie:
Oakton St. & Laramie Ave. (adjacent to
Village Hall & Public Library)

• 2009 blue 2009 Honda Insight, ID# 4603
  
• 2009 silver Honda CR-V, ID# 4604
  

Wilmette:
349 Linden St. (adjacent to CTA Purple Line station),
2010 blue Toyota Prius, ID# 4600

Forest Park:
711 S. DesPlaines Ave. (adjacent to CTA Blue Line station),
2010 silver Toyota Prius, ID# 4599

Avondale (new I-GO/Chicago Park District location): 2732 N. Avers, Kosciuszko Park,
2009 black Honda Fit, ID# 4605

• Rogers Park: 1210 W. Arthur, 2006 blue Honda Civic, ID# 4461; 1218 W. Morse, 2006 blue Honda Civic, ID# 4581
• Edgewater: 1118 W. Thorndale, 2007 gray Toyota Matrix, ID# 4418
• West Town: 2021 W. Chicago, 2007 blue Honda Fit, ID# 4548
• Streeterville: 111 E. Chestnut, 2007 blue Toyota Matrix, ID# 4538
• Pilsen: 828 W. 19th St., 2010 Honda Insight, ID# 4601
• Beverly: 1817 W. 96th St., 2008 Honda Civic, ID# 4577

When the chips are down, bingo is a real drag. Literally so at 8pm, Mon., Oct. 19, when I-GO and our pals at the

Active Transportation Alliance co-sponsor HamBINGO
Mary’s, the drag queen-hosted bingo night at Hamburger Mary’s,
5400 N. Clark St., in Andersonville.

Join us, mix with other members of both mobile-minded orgs, and compete for fab prizes (including tickets to Broadway touring musical
Young Frankenstein) as saucy drag diva Velicity Metropolis dishes out the numbers—and performs a few of her own.

The event is free for I-GO and Active Trans members. Plus, we’ll offer you and your pals discounted memberships ($25 sign-ups for I-GO; $30 for Active Trans or $25
if you’re already I-GO members). Active Trans will even sweeten the pot with a shiny, new bike bell.

There’s a
$5 suggested donation for bingo cards, and
we encourage you to dig into the food and drink specials. It’s all for a good cause: HamBINGO benefits local charities and non-profits like ours. So eat, drink,
and be Mary. It’ll be a scream.

It’s been in there forever, but many members probably aren’t aware of a function in our online reservations system that lets you sync your account reservations with Google
Calendar. If you use the latter on a regular basis (and maybe you sync it with your iPhone, too), this is a handy way to send yourself alerts by email and text about I-GO reservations.

Just

log in to your account on our website, click on "My Account" in the menu bar, select the "Preferences" tab, and scroll down to the Google Calendar section. After you authorize the link you can choose two notifications, via email or text (SMS), for different
times prior to your reservation and/or to alert you 15 minutes before your trip ends.

While we’re on the subject of online synergy, this is probably a good time to remind everyone that
I-GO has a great mobile reservations site for smartphones and web-enabled mobile devices.

Find out more here.

A dead battery that leaves you stranded is a major buzz kill. Often, this happens because the hazard lights have been left on too long. (Dome lights and radios are the
other frequent culprits.) Here are some positive tips that’ll help you avoid a negative situation:

1. Only use the hazard lights when absolutely necessary.
2. Don’t leave them on for long periods of time.
3. Hybrid vehicles (Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrids and Insights) are more susceptible to hazards draining the battery.
   
4. Don’t park in tow zones, alleys, or other restricted areas and leave the hazards on. You’re not only running down the battery, you’re also running the risk of the car
   getting towed! (Another major drag, since you need to stay with the car until we can reach you. And we assume Lincoln Towing’s office—the stuff of many Chicagoans’ nightmares—isn’t where you want to spend the remainder of your I-GO trip, right?)
   

Lately, we’ve heard from lots of members who’ve replaced the key back in the glovebox keypad, but then manually locked the doors only to discover they left something in
the car.

That can cause problems. Manually locking the doors at the end of your I-GO trip confuses the in-car computer, which
is waiting for the member to lock the doors by holding their smartcard over the windshield reader. If we need to send a signal to the car to remotely unlock it, that
computer (we’ll stop short of anthropomorphizing him further and calling him HAL) wonders why we’d do so, since, as far as it knows, the car is still locked.

This can also cause a problem for the next member accessing the vehicle. When
they hold their card over the reader, intending to start their trip, this actually ends the previous member’s trip and the doors may remain locked. Of course, you can simply wait a moment and swipe in again to unlock the doors and start your trip. But it’s
a minor glitch we’d like to clarify so that your trip goes as pleasantly as possible.

In any event, you can
always call I-GO’s Member Services department (773-278-4446) 24/7 for assistance. Hey, we’re there for you, I-GOers. But we hope this tip makes you an even savvier car-sharing pro!

I-GO’s calendar is bumper to bumper this month

Community outreach is key to I-GO’s mission. Stop by for discount membership deals or earn driving credits when you sign up a friend.

Historic Chicago Bungalow
& Green Home Expo
Sat., Oct. 17, 10am-4pm
Merchandise Mart, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza
Hit the bricks, pal. And we mean that in the best way possible. Stock up on advice and resources for bungalows, home restoration, energy efficiency, and, of course, car sharing courtesy of I-GO, your green mobile home on wheels.

Hamburger
Mary’s Drag Queen Bingo
Mon., Oct. 19, 8pm-4pm
5400 N. Clark St.
Eat, drink, and be Mary—literally or otherwise—as I-GO and the Active Transportation Alliance co-sponsor an evening of high-spirited bingo, sequined sass, pub and grub, and fab prizes
at one of Andersonville’s fave hangouts. I-GO and Active Trans members get in free, and both orgs will be chipping in with discounted sign-ups for any sidekicks you bring along. B-I-N-G-O and I-GO was its name-o.

Halfway to Earth Day
Sat., Oct. 24, 1pm
833 S. Euclid, Oak Park
What a nice coincidence that Oak Park’s eco celebration, six months shy of Earth Day, is taking place in the same parking lot where I-GO just added two cars—a Honda Civic and a brand-new 2010 Honda Insight hybrid. Which calls for a ribbon-cutting ceremony,
don’t you think? Stop by and help us wield the scissors.

Northwestern University
Health & Benefits Fair
Wed., Oct. 28, 11am-2pm
Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Dr., Evanston
You’ll get fit just walking around NU’s sprawling health fair. We’re talkin’ interactive and topical exhibits, health/fitness screenings and demos, and both university and visiting experts imparting a variety of valuable info. It’s for all ages, too, which
is cool. I-GO will be on-hand to promote the environmental and physical health benefits of car sharing. (Did you know I-GO members walk and bike more, on average, than non-I-GOers? True story.)

Did you know I-GO’s Chi-Town Rewards program offers members sweet deals on goods and services from local businesses, national companies, online retailers and more?

Feast your eyes on the latest deals:

Bistro Campagne
4518 N. Lincoln Ave., (773) 271-6100
Chef Michael Altenberg was years ahead of the organic cuisine trend, and it doesn’t get much better than his spin on French bistro fare at this Lincoln Square architectural gem.
Offer: 10% off dinner for two people (applies only to tables of two)

eZing,
Inc.
(708) 848-3066
eZing performs energy audits, performance certification (e.g. Energy Star, modeling, design consulting) and provides owners with representation for quality assurance during installation.
Offer: $200 off energy installation guidance for buildings with six units or larger; $100 off for smaller buildings

New
Urban Property Services
(312) 502-8213
New Urban Property Services is a Chicago-based residential real estate brokerage company that focuses on transit-oriented locations in Chicagoland. Its website
enables searches for properties near specific CTA and Metra stations.
Offer: Use New Urban to buy or sell a home and receive free I-GO driving credit equivalent to 0.10% of the purchase or sale price. (For example, a $300,000 transaction would yield $300 in driving credit.)

I-GO can save your business big-time on transportation expenses.

Click here to learn how. And we encourage you to check out our newest business members!

Chicago Filmmakers

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