Car2Go Coming to Calgary Edit- closing as of October 31

[rayne008]

How do they ticket over the limit cars? Do they still chalk tires?

[REDVAN]

I am under the impression that car2go has a deal with the city to pay for parking in (for example) 2hr spots. These are street parking that is paid from 9-6 generally. So car2go is actually only paying for cars that are parked here for more than 2 hours and actually get a ticket. NOT for cars parked here within the 2 hr limit, since they are already paying parking charge, and not in evenings and weekends.

So the tickets must not be TOO numerous, otherwise they could not stay in business!

[Smartcar]

Free membership and 30 free minutes if anyone is looking to sign up.
http://www.car2gotime.com/?cid=c2g_o...c%20_micropage

[RW99]

Psst, Car2Go... How about lowering your pricing as you don't have a fuel contract?

[RW99]

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...s-lack-of-data

Councillors approved a crackdown on clusters of Car2Go vehicles on downtown blocks, though they did so without any data stating any such problem exists. City transportation planners encouraged a policy that requires the car sharing company to move around its vehicles if they consistently make up one-quarter or more of a particular block. The action was prompted by business association concerns, and about 80 resident complaints a year.

I am an avid Car2Go user, but I do not use it to commute. We have not received any discount due to the falling gas prices and I'm concerned that the rates will increase for us non-commuters. I would like the idea of more cars outside the downtown core though. Thoughts?

[Ducay]

I can see where both sides are coming from.

As a semi-often Car2go user, its a great service and I know tonnes of people who use it daily. Its cheap(ish), and crazy convenient.

As a driver who parks daily in the core, the sheer number of stalls these things take up is crazy. Car2Go has stats on how many stalls they take up, but its gotta be near 15-20% of on street parking on any weekday, which is a big pain when you can no longer find 2hr stalls as they're all taken up.

Here's where the rub comes in, Car2go is threatening fee increases, but really, is that the city's problem? City shouldn't be subsidizing private business in that regard, and Car2Go is already getting a generous deal that will for the most part be unchanged. From the City's point, they already subsidizes transit, which I imagine is their preferred way for you to get around.

[OldDutch]

When I was in Vancouver last summer, I could of swore there are designated Car2Go only spots on the street. One was around the corner from the hotel I stayed at. Not sure if they were only allowed to park there, but I thought it was a great idea.

I occasionally drive downtown when I am running late for work and need to drop the kids off at daycare. It infuriates me that the one small street in front of the daycare that has no more than 8 spots has 4-6 car2go parked in a row. I end up double parked or in a no parking zone just to get my kid out. Then I drive to work and again 2 full blocks of car2go, mostly in the 3hr zones.

I love car2go, use it frequently as well, but rules have to change. It is such a love hate I have with them right now.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

When I was in Vancouver last summer, I could of swore there are designated Car2Go only spots on the street. One was around the corner from the hotel I stayed at. Not sure if they were only allowed to park there, but I thought it was a great idea.

I occasionally drive downtown when I am running late for work and need to drop the kids off at daycare. It infuriates me that the one small street in front of the daycare that has no more than 8 spots has 4-6 car2go parked in a row. I end up double parked or in a no parking zone just to get my kid out. Then I drive to work and again 2 full blocks of car2go, mostly in the 3hr zones.

I love car2go, use it frequently as well, but rules have to change. It is such a love hate I have with them right now.

I don't think the rules need to change but I do think that the city and the Car2Go system would be better served with some centralized parking locations.

[Northski]

In 3 or 4 years there might be 3000 to 5000 shared cars spread over multiple companies using zip car's or car2go's business model. The majority of cars would still come downtown in the morning rush hour. Most of these cars would need to parked off street. So car sharing companies will need to move to a drop fee for parking downtown in the morning, much like parking at the airport. Right now getting a few 40$ parking ticket is still cheaper for car2go compared to having to rent an off street parking stall for 400$ a month in the core.

[calgarywinning]

I am looking to see if anyone has a current promotional code to avoid registration fee upon signup for Car2go. Would greatly appreciate it!

[Matata]

Originally Posted by RW99

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...s-lack-of-data

I am an avid Car2Go user, but I do not use it to commute. We have not received any discount due to the falling gas prices and I'm concerned that the rates will increase for us non-commuters. I would like the idea of more cars outside the downtown core though. Thoughts?

This seems odd to me, wouldn't Car2go to go free up parking spots? Instead of a private car that would be parked in a spot for several hours, the Car2go should be back on the road and out of a parking spot relatively quickly. They also take up much less space than a typical parked car.

I realize that this decision was made without any research, and I couldn't find any studies done in other cities. It seems really naive to think that if it wasn't for Car2go, all those parking spots would be empty. Downtown parking is only going to get more congested as the city continues to grow and Car2go seems more like a solution than a problem to me.

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by Matata

This seems odd to me, wouldn't Car2go to go free up parking spots? Instead of a private car that would be parked in a spot for several hours, the Car2go should be back on the road and out of a parking spot relatively quickly.

I think this is pretty close to being spot-on. That said, it may actually increase downtown traffic a little bit (theoretically) as inner city commuters that traditionally use public transit switch to Car2Go.

My last house was about a 15 minute walk to Eau Claire and that's how I typically commuted. But on those days when it was pouring rain, 40 below, or I had a heavy bag full of stuff to carry, I would try to snag a Car2Go. Why? Because the drive would be under 5 minutes, versus the bus being 20ish (assuming its on time) due to the route and all the stops.

Since both cost about the same (~$3 each way), it was a no-brainer.

So....assuming I'm not the only one doing that, I could see how downtown traffic could actually increase in some scenarios.

[ken0042]

Car2go is decreasing their coverage area effective September 28.

At car2go, it is important for us to be transparent with our members, and we would like to take the opportunity to share the factors that contributed to such an important decision.

Since we brought our service to Calgary, we have seen consistent feedback from our membership base that car2go availiabilty has been a growing challenge in Calgary’s urban core.

With this feedback in mind, we analyzed our usage in Calgary and identified areas that experienced significantly high car2go usage, as well as areas within Calgary with substantially lower car2go usage. In the lower usage area, we found that vehicles sat over five times as long, ultimately affected overall vehicle availability for the Calgary membership base, as well as parking for the Calgary community.



Looking at the coverage map right now, there are about 50 orphaned Car2gos in the fringe areas right now.

[Jimmy Stang]

That's quite unfortunate for the people in places like Bowness, Lakeview, Glamorgan, and Varsity. I suppose that this is the flip side of the expansion a while back, and while not contracting back to the original home area, it does trim some of the fat off from around the edges.

I'm only a very occasional user, and don't live in the home area anyway, but it does seem like a small step backwards for Car2Go. I would rather have seen something more creative like incentives/disincentives for different times and areas than simple exclusion. But then you run the risk of the system becoming overly complicated.

[dubc80]

Well, this sucks.

I was an occasional car2go user. Maybe once or twice a month and my place is now outside the home area.

Closest I can get would be a few blocks away which isn't too bad, but still. It was nice pulling up and parking on the street right outside.

Not sure how much (if any) this will discourage my use of the service.

[woob]

Love car2go during the day. I take transit to work as much as possible, and being able to hop in to a car2go to run to appointment or lunch is great. What I don't love is trying to use the service anywhere in the downtown area past 3:30. It's a car2go ghost town. I'm not sure how you resolve that, except with maybe a dedicated redistribution crew or something, but I can't imagine that would be cheap for them to operate.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by woob

Love car2go during the day. I take transit to work as much as possible, and being able to hop in to a car2go to run to appointment or lunch is great. What I don't love is trying to use the service anywhere in the downtown area past 3:30. It's a car2go ghost town. I'm not sure how you resolve that, except with maybe a dedicated redistribution crew or something, but I can't imagine that would be cheap for them to operate.

This. Trying to grab a car to go to the airport after 3:30. good luck. they are all in the burbs.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by woob

Love car2go during the day. I take transit to work as much as possible, and being able to hop in to a car2go to run to appointment or lunch is great. What I don't love is trying to use the service anywhere in the downtown area past 3:30. It's a car2go ghost town. I'm not sure how you resolve that, except with maybe a dedicated redistribution crew or something, but I can't imagine that would be cheap for them to operate.

Originally Posted by Cappy

This. Trying to grab a car to go to the airport after 3:30. good luck. they are all in the burbs.

Maybe offer free trips ending in downtown between 3 and 6 or something. Or give bonus minutes. But I honestly doubt that would be enough of an incentive to offset the exodus from downtown.

I would have thought that Car2Go would have tried some incentives/disincentives to encourage the movement of cars instead of just shrinking the zone.

[MRCboicgy]

This sucks, as I'm no longer in the zone.

It was interesting this year, as on long weekends and holidays, there would be about 20 or more cars parked on the streets outside Bowness park.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

If it helps increase availability of cars - I'm all for it. No point having cars dissappear into a "black hole" when your key zones are underserviced.

Weird how much of the NW section left in the zone is really just commercial retail (ie Northland Mall / Dalhousie station / Dalhousie Co-Op & Crappy Tire). I thought you couldn't end a trip in a private parking lot?