Car2Go Coming to Calgary Edit- closing as of October 31

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

It will be a matter of time that the likes of Lime and Bird will pull out of Calgary too, give it like 2 or 3 more years I would think. The demands are just not there. It is fun to ride the scooters for a couple of times as a toy, but then it is just pretty meh. Plus the sh*tty weather we get here for like 9 months of the year makes riding not that fun.

Except it’s thriving around the world. Including here.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by nik-

Likely parking and towing costs.

I'm pretty sure towing costs got charged back to the last user, parking costs were something negotiated with the city.

[timun]

Originally Posted by pepper24

This is great news. Those cars take up a lot of good street parking downtown. Welcome more open spots during the working week.

You won't see more open spots during the working week, you'll see fewer. Those Car2Go cars were available to be used by anyone who had an account, hence they tended to have much, much quicker turnover than a private car.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I'm pretty sure towing costs got charged back to the last user, parking costs were something negotiated with the city.

I thought at some point the essentially just ended up paying the full rate for downtown parking.

[OldDutch]

Honestly believe that Uber has killed this. I believe the city can agree to better parking fees, but in the end will that up ridership? Vancouver lacks Uber and they are staying there.

I seldom use C2G now. By the time you walk to a car, sign in, drive, then attempt to park anywhere beltline or downtown. Your a good 10-15 mins slower, plus walking in from a far parking spot. In winter forget it.

So ya, Uber please never leave us!

[Coach]

I hope this doesn't happen in Van. Love Car2Go.

[oldschoolcalgary]

its a shame.

Car2go is still running in other Cities; from the news release it seemed like it wasn't a question of use, in calgary, it was the deal or lack thereof with Car2go and the City that is causing the move.

Vancouver, MTL are still fine... but Toronto lost its Car2go in 2018...

i guess Woolley is going to talk to transportation to see if something can be worked out

[Locke]

Might have something to do with specifically targeting the inner-City and Downtown Core which isnt exactly thriving right now.

Originally Posted by Robbob

Yeah I think tickets were a big thing. Around my building you would see a CPA guys just walk and write tickets down the entire block of C2Gs daily.

I know the economy is bad but it must be terrible when Accountants are working then shoe-leather pounding the pavement writing parking tickets.

Wont someone please think of the CPAs!!

[powderjunkie]

I enjoyed being able to use this in Austin, Montreal, and Vancouver...hopefully our accounts remain active in the remaining cities?

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

See, I found it far less useful in Vancouver just because so many of the permitted parking zones are islands. If you drive to, say, North Van, and the parking lot there is full, you have to drive 10 minutes to the other lot and hope it's not full. Same with horseshoe bay, although that's not even an allowed parking zone anymore at all. Maybe it's changed to permit street parking in more areas now?

[GGG]

Is car sharing a net good and something that should be subsidized by the city?

It doesn’t reduce traffic
Increasing parking availability really just increases traffic and that assumes the cars get moved during the day when parking is limited.

It’s great for users but I don’t see the benefit to the city that would warrant reducing parking costs or some other initiative to make it more viable.

[Bill Bumface]

One benefit I can think of for the city is affordability. Living in a condo with no parking spot and no car payment/maintenance is a big boost to affordability/disposable income.

[Fuzz]

If 10 people can share one car, then ya, of course it is a net benefit. That's 9 cars not manufactured, and eventually disposed of. 9 cars that don't need parking spots. Fewer tires, oil changes etc.

[Northendzone]

It would be interesting to know what thier business issues are or if that is just another for them to justify thier shutdown

[Brewmaster]

I dont know why they didnt try raising prices. I used to drive C2G daily on my morning commute, and it would cost $5 to drive in and park right in front of my office. This was in the brand new Mercedes sedans or crossovers. The car would typically sit in the same spot all day until someone would take it back out of downtown around 3 or 4pm. There's no way they were making money on that.

There was also a bunch of issues in the winter with cars would get stuck, frozen over, etc.

I always figured they were operating at a loss to gain users and be a first mover in the ride share business. Maybe just ahead of their time for the eventual onset of automated and shareable vehicles.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by timun

You won't see more open spots during the working week, you'll see fewer. Those Car2Go cars were available to be used by anyone who had an account, hence they tended to have much, much quicker turnover than a private car.

Disagree, people with private cars don't usually use short term street parking to park all day. Street parking is about $5/hr in the core, you're better off parking in a lot if you're there all day.

Originally Posted by Brewmaster

The car would typically sit in the same spot all day until someone would take it back out of downtown around 3 or 4pm. There's no way they were making money on that.

I don't know about recently but this is what I saw when they first came out. Rows of Smartcars that sucked up all of the street parking all day. I used to joke they were like Agent Smith, they just keep multiplying and taking over everything.

[CorbeauNoir]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Except it’s thriving around the world. Including here.

The scooters will go through the same kind of cycle Pokemon Go had a few years ago. You couldn't even ####ing get a bike across the Bow bridges the summer it first came out because so many people were loitering around on the paths, then winter hit and nobody wanted to set foot outside and by next summer interest dropped off sharply and pedestrian traffic was far more manageable.

[CorbeauNoir]

Originally Posted by Brewmaster

I dont know why they didnt try raising prices. I used to drive C2G daily on my morning commute, and it would cost $5 to drive in and park right in front of my office. This was in the brand new Mercedes sedans or crossovers. The car would typically sit in the same spot all day until someone would take it back out of downtown around 3 or 4pm. There's no way they were making money on that.

There was also a bunch of issues in the winter with cars would get stuck, frozen over, etc.

I always figured they were operating at a loss to gain users and be a first mover in the ride share business. Maybe just ahead of their time for the eventual onset of automated and shareable vehicles.

They just recently did raise prices. They did it in kind of a sneaky workaround way - cars not being circulated as much or in less heavily trafficked areas became available at a 'reduced rate' (ie, the old rate while higher-traffic vehicles had a rate increase).

Even with the prices getting jacked up I don't own a car and it's so much more expensive to use Uber, this really ####s me over regardless of what "alternatives" are out there.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If 10 people can share one car, then ya, of course it is a net benefit. That's 9 cars not manufactured, and eventually disposed of. 9 cars that don't need parking spots. Fewer tires, oil changes etc.

The city already artificially restricts parking in the core so it doesn’t reduce the number of cars or Kim’s driven. Oil changes and tire changes are km based not car based. You are correct from a resource standpoint there is a net benefit but not for the city itself.

Bill is correct on improving affordability if the existence of C2G allows you to get rid of a vehicle and go carless

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by CorbeauNoir

The scooters will go through the same kind of cycle Pokemon Go had a few years ago. You couldn't even ####ing get a bike across the Bow bridges the summer it first came out because so many people were loitering around on the paths, then winter hit and nobody wanted to set foot outside and by next summer interest dropped off sharply and pedestrian traffic was far more manageable.

Sure if you totally ignore every other city they have been in for much longer already.