Car2Go Coming to Calgary Edit- closing as of October 31

[Suave]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

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.

From the press release:

Later this month, car2go will also expand its Home Area to encompass a total of 93 square kilometers. The car2go Home Area is the area where members can pick up and drop off their car2go, and it will now extend north to 24th Avenue, south to Glenmore Trail, east to Deerfoot Trail and Blackfoot Trail, and west to Sarcee Trail. A full map of the car2go Home Area can be viewed at: http://www.car2go.com/calgary/en/area/.

I am very happy about this news as I live on 24th Ave.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Suave

From the press release:

Later this month, car2go will also expand its Home Area to encompass a total of 93 square kilometers. The car2go Home Area is the area where members can pick up and drop off their car2go, and it will now extend north to 24th Avenue, south to Glenmore Trail, east to Deerfoot Trail and Blackfoot Trail, and west to Sarcee Trail. A full map of the car2go Home Area can be viewed at: http://www.car2go.com/calgary/en/area/.

I am very happy about this news as I live on 24th Ave.

When I go to that site, the shaded area stops at 16th ave east of crowchild. When you go there, is it showing the shaded area all the way to 24th ave north across the city?

[Ozy_Flame]

^^ But the zone is generally in the downtown Core, so it's sort of a moot point. You would have to measure Congestion levels and distance traveled within car2go's zone to get a better read on things.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

^^ But the zone is generally in the downtown Core, so it's sort of a moot point. You would have to measure Congestion levels and distance traveled within car2go's zone to get a better read on things.

Like someone driving from Lakeview to downtown?

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

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

Spoiler!

I'm guessing this has something to do with it: http://www.calgaryherald.com/busines...471/story.html

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by fotze

I would be curious to see the numbers. I am just whiny because a car2go cut me off this morning. There are just so many of them right around the coreiest or cores, where I work. They all arrive at 7:30 then they all leave at 4:00. I would bet a large percentage are used just to commute from and to the core surrounding hoods, like Killarney, Westgate, Lakeview, Mount Pleasant, etc. Wouldn't suprise me if people drive to the car2go car and take it in, there is no congestion reducing benefit of these, just helps the car2go bottom line and kinda hurts the Calgary Transit or Calgary Parking authority bottom line.

I just don't think that is what the city intended when they gave them free parking.

I could be totally wrong on a lot of the assumptions I have made of course.

I do like the idea of them overall and will use them from time to time.

It's 5:15 and there are three cars within the actual DT core; the rest are all out in the surrounding communities. I have to believe the overwhelming majority of use is people driving to work during the morning and leaving after work in the afternoon. Sure there will be people who will take trips from downtown during the day, and trips after work (i.e. to the grocery store and such), but otherwise, you're likely SOL if you finish work after 5:00 (all the cars will be gone downtown), or you live downtown and want to go somewhere after work.

[Nehkara]

Cool that it is such a big success here, I need to try it out soon. Hopefully the home area will continue to expand.

[Hack&Lube]

Thanks for the reminder that the minutes expire. My 30 minutes expire this Sat. perhaps I will just take one out for a joyride if I never have a chance to use it properly

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by fotze

I would bet a large percentage are used just to commute from and to the core surrounding hoods, like Killarney, Westgate, Lakeview, Mount Pleasant, etc.

Commuters are an important part of car redistribution.

During the day, most people are in the CBD, thus most of the cars being in the CBD means those people have cars available for errands/appointments etc. In the evening, most people are in residential neighborhoods, so most of the cars being there means those people are serviced better. Right now there aren't enough cars, and thus the residential neighborhoods and CBD get totally cleaned out at different times of the day, which isn't good, you want a couple around all parts of the city still.

[Knalus]

Those cars downtown need to get out of the on street parking downtown during rush hour anyway, don't they?

Just used car2go to head home from the theater at chinook after taking the train there from work. Very convenient, lots of cars available at the station. On Friday I am going to use it to go home for lunch to meet with a furnace guy, last time I did that for a plumbing guy it worked great. I don't use it a lot, but I have found it quite convenient and useful.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

It's 5:15 and there are three cars within the actual DT core; the rest are all out in the surrounding communities. I have to believe the overwhelming majority of use is people driving to work during the morning and leaving after work in the afternoon. Sure there will be people who will take trips from downtown during the day, and trips after work (i.e. to the grocery store and such), but otherwise, you're likely SOL if you finish work after 5:00 (all the cars will be gone downtown), or you live downtown and want to go somewhere after work.

Just a quick update -- it's 8:50 and all but 33 cars are parked within the DT core. Assuming there are 150 cars out there, that is 78% being used to commute DT.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Just a quick update -- it's 8:50 and all but 33 cars are parked within the DT core. Assuming there are 150 cars out there, that is 78% being used to commute DT.

Wait, what? 118 cars are sitting downtown but 78% are being use to commute DT? How can you derive that conclusion?

[jammies]

Originally Posted by fotze

I am just whiny

I emailed car2go customer support asking if they were going to put winter tires on the vehicles going into the snowy season. I really want to know, as I would like to dump my car and just use car2go, but reading thru several forums about how Smart cars handle in the winter, I'm extremely leery of doing so if they just keep the all-seasons. I will post back if/when I hear from them.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Wait, what? 118 cars are sitting downtown but 78% are being use to commute DT? How can you derive that conclusion?

I assumed all of the cars had been driven out of downtown at the end of the work day yesterday (per my earlier post, as of 5:15, only three out of 150 cars were remained in the core). In the morning, I counted only 33 cars parked outside of the core, and a crapload within core. There are a couple of assumptions here; also, in hindsight, I guess the car2go map only provides "parked" cars, so I shouldn't assume every car that is in use is travelling into downtown, but the trend is pretty clear.

[jtfrogger]

I just tried car2go for the first time today. There were pluses & minuses, but overall it worked. I'll try it a few more times and I could see us getting rid of our second car if it continues to work well.

I did a quick trip to Walmart, and the Walmart in Westbrook Mall is in the home zone. I parked right on 37th St. It was so close to the mall entrance, it was almost as good as parking in the mall parking lot. The same car was still there for the trip back home. I used 17 minutes on the way there and 9 minutes on the way back. I also had a 0 minute session afterward, since I had to go back to grab something I left in the car. The reason that it was so long on the way there is the computer in the car rebooted and I couldn't end the session until it was done. I had to call them to close it. I asked them for a credit while I was on the phone with them and they said they would give it. So, I am reasonably happy with that. The radio didn't work on the way there, but worked on the way back.

There were very few cars available near 17th Ave. I was having lunch at Cibo and kept checking every few minutes for a car. Many times the closest car was on 8th Ave downtown. It would have been worse if I was starting out in Marda Loop, since that was in the middle of a dead zone for cars. Hopefully this is resolved when they put more cars on the road.

The iPhone app needs work. You can only book a car immediately. I would have liked to book a car into the future like you can through the web site. In addition to the iOS app, I tried the web site through Safari and the time slider didn't work.

On that note, the address search on the website is useless. For some reason, when you search for 14 Ave SW it fills the dropdown with a bunch of incorrect addresses (1 Ave, 10 Ave, 110 Ave...). So, maybe the reservation online may not be functional either.

So, a few kinks to work out, but it has a lot of promise.

[stevinder]

Originally Posted by jtfrogger

The iPhone app needs work.

The Car2Go App is bad. I've bought the Get2Car App and it is a lot better.

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by jammies

I emailed car2go customer support asking if they were going to put winter tires on the vehicles going into the snowy season. I really want to know, as I would like to dump my car and just use car2go, but reading thru several forums about how Smart cars handle in the winter, I'm extremely leery of doing so if they just keep the all-seasons. I will post back if/when I hear from them.

They are going to put winter tires on the cars, and there will be snow scrapers inside every car as well.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

I tried this for the frist time this morning.
I quite liked it, but I couldn't get the Nav system to work, and I had to scrape the windows with a card.
Small issues, but overall, I'm looking forward to using this more often from time to time.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

They are going to put winter tires on the cars, and there will be snow scrapers inside every car as well.

If you think about it, you will need to pay them to scrap the windows of the car.

That's some kind of screwed up.

[woob]

I drove a Smart car for 3 months in the winter back when I first started my business (belonged to my business partner). It had winter tires and I had zero issues with it in the snow. In fact, I remember it being a blast to drive in snowy conditions and quite enjoyed doing so. The Mazda 6 wagon I used to own got stuck more than the Smart car in similiar snow conditions. Keep in mind, I also used to live in a Close and it never got plowed.