Car2go exits the Toronto market

[darren]

Car2go has had a mixed history in Toronto. When it started out, it had a deal with the Toronto Parking Authority where Car2go vehicles could park in any TPA "Green P" lot, and certain on-street parking locations. In 2017, they started an un-sanctioned "free floating" pilot on their own, allowing Car2go members to park nearly anywhere on city streets in the Home Zone (downtown), as long as it wouldn't get the car towed. They ate the cost of thousands of parking tickets.

 

Many city streets have a wait list for parking permits, and many residents hated losing spots on their streets to car-sharing vehicles, even though several families on a street could be Car2go members, actually freeing up parking spaces.

 

Car2go had been petitioning the city for an official "free floating" pilot project like they have in just about every other city where Car2go operates, allowing them to park on city streets with a special permit they would have to purchase for every vehicle.

 

The city responded with an amended and restrictive plan that had a permit fee far higher than in any other city, and restrictions on which streets the cars could be parked on. And no more than one car could park on a street. The company decided that these restrictions were too onerous, and so on June 1, they pulled up stakes and left Toronto entirely. I suspect they were trying to call the city's bluff (or vice versa) and they decided to screw over their members, instead of finding an alternate solution, such as going back to the old TPA partnership. 

 

It's a sad development. Car2go was one of the BIG reasons I decided to walk away from my smart ED lease, and go entirely car-free in the city. 

 

Quote

Important Update

car2go is being forced to suspend operations in Toronto as of May 31 due to Toronto City Council’s decision to pass a heavily amended free-floating carshare pilot that ultimately renders our service inoperable. 

 

For nearly six years, we’ve tried to collaborate with the City of Toronto to establish an effective regulatory framework for free-float carshare. Despite our best efforts, City Councillors passed a pilot that prevents us from providing service to our 80,000 Torontonian members once the pilot takes effect June 1. 

Read more here

 

[stickman007]

I think its a tough sell for N/A to give up their cars in general - let alone giving up their trucks and SUVs.

 

I dare to say that Edmonton is another example of a "mess" with the city investing money on their poorly thought out transit system and bike lanes. Not that I have anything against the two, but building on a poorly designed and outdated infrastructure is asking for trouble. I'll take Toronto any day over Edmonton if I had a choice. Too bad about the Car2go...its definitely a good model for moving away from individual car ownership.

[MikeT]

Car2go was getting out of smarts shortly anyway so who cares?  At least in the context of this Club.

[MikeT]

Still have the Ford Fiasco?  Ours has been utter crap but we still have it.

[darren]

Heheh... Toronto is STILL waiting for our Bombardier streetcars that were due two years ago. You might be waiting a while... 

 

Daimler transitioning away from the smarts to the CLA and GLA really sucked. The smarts were a joy to drive (at least the 453s were) and so easy to park. They fulfilled their role very nicely. The CLA and GLA are awful to drive and park, and have terrible seats and lousy ergonomics. 

[niteshooter]

2 hours ago, darren said:

Heheh... Toronto is STILL waiting for our Bombardier streetcars that were due two years ago. You might be waiting a while... 

 

Daimler transitioning away from the smarts to the CLA and GLA really sucked. The smarts were a joy to drive (at least the 453s were) and so easy to park. They fulfilled their role very nicely. The CLA and GLA are awful to drive and park, and have terrible seats and lousy ergonomics. 

 

Heh heh, I was about to mention the same thing. Toronto is not too thrilled with the delays that Bombardier has had with our streetcars. They seem nice but their inability to build them in time is a real issue. 

 

C2G ditched a lot of smarts here last year, I had thought they were being replaced by MB vehicles which means taking up more space than the smarts. 

[MikeT]

The last Mercedes that seemed decent to me was the W212 E Class, the other stuff is cramped and nasty inside and out.

[darren]

14 hours ago, niteshooter said:

C2G ditched a lot of smarts here last year, I had thought they were being replaced by MB vehicles which means taking up more space than the smarts. 

 

I think there were a lot of factors in play that led a lot of downtown Toronto residents to grow increasingly annoyed with car2go.

 

Last year, you would see cars getting collected and lined up neatly in legal on-street overnight parking. That seemed to taper off into the fall and winter months. I suspect the mounting costs of paying all the fines in their un-sanctioned "free floating" parking experiment was leading to staff and service reductions in car2go's Toronto operation.

 

It felt like in recent months, cars weren't being moved or maintained nearly as much as they had in the past. I encountered numerous cars that were dirty, had burned out lights, sometimes thousands of kilometres past service intervals, and often had zero washer fluid, which is unforgivable in the winter months. One car I had for a daily rental ended up with a flat tire. Cars were being left on residential streets, sometimes for days at a time, accumulating tickets.

 

It seems that they took a confrontational approach, rather than trying to build a partnership that actually worked. For car2go, it was "my way or the highway," and so they went. It's disappointing, because it was a very popular service among members, who are ultimately the ones who got screwed by the company AND the city.

[MikeT]

...and Car2go is dead everywhere.   Interesting experiment......

[darren]

Yeah, I had hoped with the new Geely partnership, they'd be coming back in a big way, but given the way Canada-USA-China relations have been going in the last year, I'm guessing Chinese companies are no longer as interested in fighting their way into the North American market.