CAR2GO first trip
I reported the launch of the one way car rental service months ago. I was one of the first to sign up while membership was free, but up until yesterday there was no real reason to use the service. In part that is due to its geographic restriction with cars only available and which must be returned to the northern part of Vancouver – from the seawall to 41st Avenue.
Yesterday we were planning a walk along the sea wall, and last week I had seen a tweet from Car2Go with a short link (tiny.cc/5wkqs) to a car finding web page that would work on any mobile. There has been an app for iPhones and some others for a while. This new one actually links to a web site in Germany which uses Google maps to show where you are and where the nearest car is. I imagine the iPhone app automates some of this by using GPS, but it is not difficult to enter a street address – including the city name – and the map information is returned quite quickly. (Even so, I hope some clever clogs develops an app for use with the Symbian system using the Car2Go API.) This was even easier than entering a bus stop number into Translink’s web site, which produces only schedule information, not real time.
As it happened, the nearest car was near a bus stop (Arbutus at Nanton) and I recalled seeing reserved parking spaces for Car2Go at Granville Island. At 35c a minute, the car is even competitive with transit as the rental time was about ten minutes. So for two people $3.50 was less than than two one zone transit tickets ($2.50 each) – and parking (of course) is free. The journey time was much faster and the drop off much closer than the #16 bus stop on Granville Bridge.
As soon as we got out of the car, a visitor started asking me about the service. As you can see from the picture there are three spaces reserved near the market but if they are full you can park in any 3 hour space – if you can find one.
For the return we had walked to Kits beach and there are two spaces at Cornwall and Balsam. Only one car was there but it was out of service awaiting attention.
So I used the phone again and found another on 2nd Ave – a short walk away. Actually the map turned out to be more useful than the street address since the car was actually parked in the lane behind the building (quite legally).
Indeed for a blogger there is very little to write. The service was exactly as advertised. The cars were convenient, easy to use and the whole process was almost effortless. I had originally thought that it would be unlikely that CAR2GO could beat transit on cost and, of course, my journey times reflect yesterday’s very light traffic. On a weekday at peak periods, it might easily have taken twice as long, and I could well have spent more time looking for a parking space. But compared to the last time we made a similar trip by transit – when the return journey required a transfer with a long wait for the bus connection – service was indeed far superior. Even taking the time of finding the second car into account.
++++++
UPDATE In the interests of accuracy and complete disclosure I have now been to the Car2Go account page and established that the trip time was slightly more than I estimated and I forgot about the HST
So outwards it was 11 minutes (3 miles) $3.85 plus $0.46 tax and back 13 minutes (4 miles) $4.55 plus $0.55 tax: round trip for two people $9.41 including HST. So about the same as four one way rides on transit at $2.50 each – $2.10 if you buy faresavers.
++++++
For Vancouver it ought to be acutely embarrassing that this service was established while they were still in the process of trying to get a one way bike rental system going. These have been available for some time now in London, Paris, Toronto and Montreal and should be – in my estimation at least – an essential part of the “greenest city” claim. The Smart cars are good but they run on gasoline (electric cars are promised for future operation elsewhere). People who can rely on getting a car when they need one from car share and one way rentals do not need to own a car (or multiple cars) and tend to use transit and other modes more frequently than similar households that do own cars. But for many journeys a bicycle would be as convenient and much less fossil fuel would be burned.
I found the Smart car to be surprisingly roomy. In my Yaris I push the driving seat back to its limit to give myself a comfortable driving position. In the Smart, doing the same thing put me too far from the controls! The side mirrors in the Smart are manually adjustable – I had a passenger to sort out the near side one, but it would have been much easier if I had been on my own to have had the electric type the Yaris has. I paid no attention to the GPS map display: I have never used one in any car. I do like the fact that the radio comes on to CBC Radio 2. And the previous user had set the air conditioning on at maximum – which is noisy and not really needed for city driving speeds. I found the controls a bit heavy compared to the Yaris – the pedals need a really firm push, and the steering got lively on some of the streets where lack of maintenance is used as a way to calm traffic. But parking in such a small car is a snap.
If you are in a hurry, I think the combination of a smart phone and a smart car will work well in any trip where the transit alternative requires a transfer – or could impose a pass up. Obviously when the schedulers regard 15 minutes as “frequent service” it is often going to be quicker to find and use a Car2Go than wait for a bus. Indeed, one of the main reasons that Car2Go was established in Austin Texas was the paucity of transit service. And again it ought to be a matter of embarrassment to the responsible politicians that Vancouver does not have a good enough transit service that Car2Go finds such a ready market in the the one part of the region that actually has something approaching a reasonable transit service. In part, those who defend transit need to revise the attitude that there is something worthy about making sacrifices. It may indeed increase their own self esteem to be seen to be taking transit to make needlessly time consuming and inconvenient trips but it is not a sensible public policy approach to increasing transit mode share by expecting everyone else to think the same way.
Expansion to the suburbs for one way car rental is going to be very welcome.
AFTERTHOUGHT – The people who should really be worried are the taxi operators. They have been very successful in keeping taxis exceedingly scarce and expensive but at least now, for the northern end of Vancouver, there is a far better alternative, if you can drive.
Stephen Rees's blog 
Great post Stephen! it’s so easy, reading it, to visualize the steps to do.
Regarding the city bike program, the very first city that did it in France was the small town of La Rochelle, way back in the 70s!!! it didn’t work too well at the time as people just stole the bikes…but the program works real fine right now..
They even have electric cars for rent! (there are lots of commercial electric vehicles in France by the way)
Hardly anyone outside France ever talk about poor La Rochelle as, being a small town, they only have a few hundreds of bikes for rent.
My take is that if a small town can do it…
For foreign tourists that came from far away, by train for example, small towns–however interesting and touristy–are a problem as they many not have car rental facilities or few cars available so La Rochelle is actually a great example.
http://www.agglo-larochelle.fr/anglais/services/depl_velo.php#
http://www.agglo-larochelle.fr/anglais/services/depl_electrique.php
http://www.agglo-larochelle.fr/anglais/services/depl_bateau.php
For people living in La Rochelle the public transit system (called Yélo…sound a bit like Yellow) has a smart card for all the travel modes: buses, bikes, ferries, tram-train, electric cars, shuttles, shared cars, taxis…
All that for a population of 75 000…
The town has a fascinating history–including fighting against the French crown during the wars of religion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rochelle (typically it doesn’t say anything about bikes and electric cars..)
Red frog
August 8, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Sounds like they have a lot of cars out there.
Sounds like it’s essential to have a smartphone to help locate the cars (but if you do, it’s very convenient).
Ron
August 8, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Ron,
You can also call the toll-free customer service line to find out where the nearest car to you is.
Andrey
August 8, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Thanks. That’s useful to save on wireless data charges.
Ron
August 8, 2011 at 6:27 pm
I’ve been using Car2Go since it first started here in Vancouver and it has been extremely convenient to use on many occasions. The system is not without its quirks, and I had a few missteps early on, but now that I’ve figured it out, it has become one of my key options for transportation, along with my bike, transit, and Modo.
I’m thrilled that we have it here, and hope that it expands to West of Dunbar and South of 41st.
E.H.
August 8, 2011 at 11:20 pm
While looking at the updated transit fares on several French transit systems (most of them update the fares on July1st) I noticed that in several towns one can load on the transit smart card a yearly pass for the use of the whole transit system PLUS the intermittent use of a rental car (1 hr, 1 day, one weekend–in the region only).
This of course shows the cultural difference with Canada. People living in the heart of an old town in Europe, Japan etc., even in single family homes, are unlikely to have free parking for their car in- or near- their home. Renting a spot all year long in a privately owned indoor parking—not necessarily located anywhere near the home– would be very expensive.
I knew some Parisians that lived in a big apartment in the posh 17th. The family chauffeur took the car home every night to his suburban home as HE had enough room for a couple of cars in his garden.
How much does it cost? in Bordeaux it cost 403, 20 Euros a year (307,20 for the transit, 96 a year for the car. I assume that there is an extra fee for actually using the car.) It comes out to 33,60 euros a month.
By comparison a yearly adult transit pass (adult = over 28, under 60) cost 384 Euros a year/ 32 Euros a month (39 Euros is bought by the month).
Anyone under 28, even those working, only pay 195 Euros a year/ 16,25 a month…Seniors pay 291 Euros a year (24,25 a month).
Red frog
August 10, 2011 at 12:13 pm
I’m still trying to figure out where car2go fits in my transportation options (walking, biking, public transit, taxis, and Modo). For someone who primarily cycles, it has been of limited use – maybe once the weather turns I’ll use it more.
The few times where it has come in handy is to get to/from skytrain stations when the bus isn’t running very often, which has only happened twice. There have been more times when I would have liked to use it, but I needed seating for more than 2 people.
That said, I’m glad it is in Vancouver and once bike sharing is added there will be a plethora of alternatives to car ownership.
canadianveggie
August 10, 2011 at 4:03 pm
[…] I have already registered myself, and have now used the cars several times […]
CAR2GO Press Conference « Stephen Rees's blog
November 2, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Hey Stephen,
Interesting read. I have found one problem recently is a lack of available cars in my area (and I wonder how they manage them from getting all grouped up).
And FYI, for you or your friends, I developed a calculator to compare the price of the various car shares in Vancouver at http://www.comparecarshares.com/ .. check it out and let me know what you think! Looking for feedback from someone who is really into the issues of urban transport!
Compare Car Shares
March 2, 2012 at 6:32 pm
The calculator is quite unrealistic: it does not include parking cost for a car trip downtown, which for most people is the determinant for mode choice. I used to drive to downtown but now I either take Canada Line (and park at the Casino for $2.50) or car2go and park for free
Stephen Rees
March 2, 2012 at 7:13 pm
Thanks for the feedback!
Well, the primary purpose of the calculator is to compare costs among car shares (ergo, comparecarshares.com). So, the parking cost is somewhat irrelevant, since it’ll be the same regardless of whether you are driving your own car, or a zip car, or a modo car (unless of course you happen to use a free zip/modo/car2go-only parking spot).
Is that the only issue you can see? I will hopefully attempt to figure out some way to add parking into the model in the future, but of course it could be incredibly tricky, since I would have to figure out where the parking would cost, and where it would be free… not a very easy programming task!
OTOH, I could maybe add an option that the user could turn on (e.g. “use car share free parking”), but again, this would only affect car shares versus self-own, not car share to car share.
Thanks again for pointing this out!
Compare Car Shares
March 2, 2012 at 7:31 pm
[…] am an enthusiastic early adopter of car2go. It already incorporates quite a few technological advances over other cars. For a start, […]
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