CALGARY – Calgary councillor Evan Woolley plans to introduce a motion Monday to direct city administration to explore its transportation options in the wake of car2go's departure.
The car share company announced the decision to leave Calgary, Austin, Denver, Portland and Chicago on its website Friday morning.
"This decision was not made lightly. We have had to face the hard reality that despite our efforts, we underestimated the investment and resources that are truly necessary to make our service successful in these complex transportation markets amid a quickly-changing mobility landscape."
To car2go users in Calgary, the news came as a surprise.
"I thought it was doing pretty well in Calgary. It's one of the cities that embraced it and I use it quite often," said car2go member Sunny. He says he plans to walk and bike more when the service exits Calgary.
"In the winter it's going to be tough," he added.
Woolley says he wants the city to look at what it can do to keep car2go in Calgary, or explore other companies that can provide similar transportation services.
In a statement to CTV, car2go identified rideshare competition and the state of the local economy as factors in the decision to leave Calgary.
"We firmly believe that Calgary deserves free-floating carshare. Despite our best efforts over the years encouraging the city to implement policy that better supported carshare, and amid an ongoing economic recession and an increasingly competitive marketplace, we are unable to continue operating in Calgary."
Car2go will pull out of Calgary, Austin, Denver and Portland by Halloween 2019 and will vacate Chicago effective New Year's Eve 2019. Members in these cities will not receive refunds as credits will remain active and can be used in the cities where car2go continues to operate.
The company says it will continue operations in Vancouver, Montreal, New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Car2go arrived in Calgary in the summer of 2012. The company confirms there are 143,118 car2go members in Calgary and the fleet is 600 vehicles strong.
Calgary is not the first Canadian city that car2go has vacated. The company ceased operations in Toronto in 2018 in response to the city's parking regulations.
