Car2Go Coming to Calgary Edit- closing as of October 31

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Some gripes about the system

- they really need to do a better job to indicate where a car is in a parkade. There's nothing like walking all the floors of a parkade trying to find the damn car.

- the donut effect of people driving in from the burbs and taking a car in are really screwing up the availability of units in the core and innercity. Often at 7pm there will be zero cars available between the bow river and 17th ave S. in the downtown area.

- what they need are some "repositioners" who relocate cars when they are all cluttered up at the periphery of the home range to areas where there no cars.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

- the donut effect of people driving in from the burbs and taking a car in are really screwing up the availability of units in the core and innercity. Often at 7pm there will be zero cars available between the bow river and 17th ave S. in the downtown area.

- what they need are some "repositioners" who relocate cars when they are all cluttered up at the periphery of the home range to areas where there no cars.

Those damn dirty parasitic suburbanites!

[malcolmk14]

Thinking about signing up just because it is such a cool service and I want to support them here in Calgary, doubt I'll use it much.

Can anyone confirm that the DINOS code works?

The parking rules are awesome.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

- the donut effect of people driving in from the burbs and taking a car in are really screwing up the availability of units in the core and innercity. Often at 7pm there will be zero cars available between the bow river and 17th ave S. in the downtown area.

Originally Posted by chemgear

Those damn dirty parasitic suburbanites!

Those damn dirty "slightly less inner-city almost suburbanites"!

Word was that there are about 50 more cars in a lot here in Calgary getting ready to be put on the street. I wonder if that will help with this "donut effect" at all?

[Leapfrog]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

Thinking about signing up just because it is such a cool service and I want to support them here in Calgary, doubt I'll use it much.

Can anyone confirm that the DINOS code works?

The parking rules are awesome.

The gf and I signed up last week.... using "DINOS" as the promo code. She called to see if it was still active and was asked if she was a current student. She said "part time" (she's not), and they said okay.

We received our cards in the mail in under a week.

[Bigtime]

Looks like it is really a success here in Calgary, 150 more cars will be added and the Home Area will be expanded:

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/389...ket-worldwide/

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I curious to see how this will work in the winter, with plows sealing cars in an even something as simple as the need snowbrushes. And plug ins for the -30 days....

Anyone know how well a smart car drives in the snow and ice?

[Ozy_Flame]

I doubt very well . . . Which is why I'm going to wait on signing up until we see how the program operates in the winter.

This will be a lesson-learning experience for the next eight months. After that, it's like a system upgrade worth waiting for.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Anyone know how well a smart car drives in the snow and ice?

Hopefully they put winter tires on them, in which case I bet they'd be fine in the winter. If the just have all seasons, they'll probably suck on slippery days just like any other car that doesn't have winters.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Looks like it is really a success here in Calgary, 150 more cars will be added and the Home Area will be expanded:

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/389...ket-worldwide/

The herald article indicates they've added 5 square km to the home area. http://www.calgaryherald.com/busines...726/story.html

Any idea what got added, I looked at the home zone map on their website, and it didn't look different to me. It's also the same as google's cached version and the wayback machine didn't have it.

[ken0042]

5 square km isn't much. Calgary is over 825 sq km- so 0.6% of the city was added. It might be hard to spot on the map what was added; it could just be one block in one direction.

[kevman]

They added the area North of 16th Ave until 24th Ave.

[jtfrogger]

Here is their press release on the expansion.

[rd_aaron]

Just an FYI for those who have signed up with a promo code to get the free 30 minutes. The free minutes expire 2 months after you register. I just looked at my account and see they expire on me in a couple of weeks, so get out there and use them.

[Smartcar]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Hopefully they put winter tires on them, in which case I bet they'd be fine in the winter. If the just have all seasons, they'll probably suck on slippery days just like any other car that doesn't have winters.

Actually without winter tires they are way worse than any other car with all seasons, just a little snow and they get stuck, probably due to a combination of low clearance and light weight. If they don't put winter tires on them they will be useless. Even with snow tires in heavy snow they get stuck. On the plus side they are very easy to push out if you have a friend along.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by kevman

They added the area North of 16th Ave until 24th Ave.

Hmmm...That's what it says in the press release, but the map on their website goes north to 32nd Ave by the university and only to 16th ave the rest of the way across. Maybe they just haven't updated the map yet, which would explain why I couldn't find any differences between the one I had printed out and the one on the site.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by rd_aaron

Just an FYI for those who have signed up with a promo code to get the free 30 minutes. The free minutes expire 2 months after you register. I just looked at my account and see they expire on me in a couple of weeks, so get out there and use them.

Yup, I have no minutes left on my account, and have never been inside one of the cars.

Both the 30 free initial minutes, and 15 minutes I got for filling out a short survey about why I wasn't using the service.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Smartcar

Actually without winter tires they are way worse than any other car with all seasons, just a little snow and they get stuck, probably due to a combination of low clearance and light weight. If they don't put winter tires on them they will be useless. Even with snow tires in heavy snow they get stuck. On the plus side they are very easy to push out if you have a friend along.

If you get stuck, take your belt off and attach it to the front axle. Then pull. Assuming you're not a weak 90-year old grandmother, it's doable

[Bigtime]

A graph showing Calgary Car2Go trips versus the other cities in NA in their network:

Spoiler!

[Muta]

You'd think more people would be driving these things in Miami, given the super-easy driving conditions.