Chinook Arch
Active Member
Well this is a bummer .Car2Go is pulling out of Calgary and 4 other American cities.
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- Thread starter Chinook Arch
- Start date
Rollerstud98
Active Member
I would get so frustrated with car2go parking downtown when I would come down there for work. Often parked in a way that took up way too much space. I won't be sad to see them go personally. I could see how people who use the service would be affected by this negatively though.
Sad not to have that extra option for transportation. I always wondered if it was a financially viable model, and this kind of answers it. I know they're staying in Montreal and Vancouver, but over time I'm not sure they'll be any better off there.
Patrick.1980
Active Member
That's too bad. It seemed like they were doing well in Calgary, but who knows how the actual numbers looked in the books. If it wasn't viable here with the popularity it had, plus a good geographical set up then it's not going to be viable most places.
Always_Biking
Senior Member
Maybe it was more viable when they were using the Smart Cars?
MichaelS
Senior Member
And the fact Smart Cars are no longer going to be available for North American markets probably helped seal the deal:
www.thedrive.com
Smart Cars Are Officially Dead in the United States and Canada
The company will effectively be dissolved in its entirety by 2020.
www.thedrive.com
I used Car2go a few times, and to be honest the smart cars worked just as well as the new 4 door sedans for what i used them for. I imagine the ROI for the 4 door sedans was quite a bit higher.
Atticus
Active Member
I had heard that the parking deal with the city was part of it. I see on Twitter Evan Woolley and the transportation department are working to try and keep Car2go in Calgary. I don't think there's anything the city can do besides lowering the parking fee arrangement.
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
The fact that they pulled out of several other cities makes me think that there's little to nothing that Calgary could have done differently. Corporations just love taking shots at government regulations whenever they have the chance. I don't think it's coincidence that all of the cities they pulled out of were more than a day's drive from the nearest serviced city (with the exception of Portland).
darwink
Senior Member
Apparently the parking was much cheaper when it was on average the smart cars - the city gave them a preferred rate. As they switched to full size cars, they didn't raise fees enough to compensate enough for the parking differential. And I think the model broke down a bit. Plus too many cars spending 6 pm to 7am in altadore and marda loop.
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
Not only are Calgary's parking prices apparently so high that Car2Go had to pull out of this city, they are so high that Car2Go has pulled out of the entire continent now. Glad Woolley wasted city staff time on this one.
Nimbus
Active Member
Well if at the time Car2Go/ShareNow was giving the parking costs as a reason and not letting on that within 3 months they were going to be gone everywhere in NA I don't think we can blame Woolley for trying to keep them around.
Car sharing could return to Calgary this spring, if parking rules change
Mountain Man
Senior Member
Saw a Comunauto this morning, first time I've noticed one. Have they been around all summer / fall?
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
They did a soft launch in mid/late September, supposed to have opened to the public in October. I was signed up for the soft launch, but they had some teething problems with their system so I wound up not getting a car. Their "home zone" is a little different than Car2Go, which was at it's height north to McKnight/JLB, west to Sarcee (plus Bowness), east to Deerfoot/Blackfoot and south to Glenmore. Most notably, it excludes the downtown core, which I think actually makes sense; I suspect despite the hype of Car2Go as an urban carshare providing mobility to the inner city, a lot of users were actually just inner-suburban car commuters avoiding paying for parking.
