When the Co-operative Auto Network started up in Vancouver in 1997, it was “the first carshare co-op in North America and the first carshare in the English-speaking world.” Subsequently joined by Zipcar (owned by the Avis Budget Group), Car2Go (a subsidiary of Daimler) and now Evo (operated by the BC Automobile Association), the city may be one of the most competitive such environments in the world.
It’s hard to know whether they all are profitable, especially since the non-coops are backed by major automobile-based companies who likely want to ensure they have a piece of the action in the future even if they have to discount the present.
And they’re upping the ante. Car2Go just announced that beginning August 4, it will be adding 625 new vehicles in Vancouver, bringing the total vehicle count to 1,250 – the largest Car2go fleet in the world.
CBC host Stephen Quinn and I discuss the car-sharing phenomenon on the July 28th edition of On the Coast (starting at 0.52.19). And there’s a lot more discussion to come: This fall Vancouver will be hosting the world Carsharing Association Conference (Sep 22-23).
Still, it’s an interesting question: why the popularity of carsharing in Vancouver? Environmental consciousness? Early adoption? Urban form? High cost of auto ownership?
All theories welcome.
no bike share?
anemic taxi offer?
no Uber?
…
…but still good transit making car free life possible?
Voony, I’m not sure Uber and car share can be compared. Uber is a taxi company, while car share is an entirely different (cheaper) service, that involves seeding an area with transportation methods.
I think you’re right with the good transit, because we have some of the best transit in the world, it’s easy to use it as the last mile of the trip, or part of a comprehensive system.
Perhaps the easiest answer is that transit in Vancouver – or rather the Car2Go service area – is simply Not Good Enough for many trips or purposes. Transit takes you from where you are not to where you don’t really want to be. And these days, far too often, passes you at the stop (too full) or runs in bunches (not nearly enough exclusive bus lanes). And transit in Vancouver is actually better than most of the rest of the region. Transit is also good to get you downtown or out to UBC. Other destinations, not so much. Moreover, Vancouver does not have a bike share system. Many of the car2go trips I take would be even better on a Velib – if we had something like that. I use car2go for multimodal travel. If I take my own car I have to find somewhere to park, pay for that, and then go back to where the car is parked to drive home. Car2Go solves two of those issues. We often walk one way and car2go back – or vice versa.
Transit offers a ‘one size doesn’t really fit very well’ solution, and the more options there are to car ownership the better
Several reasons, I think.
People in Vancouver have caught on that there are many alternative ways to get around the city. Walking, riding a bike and using transit are all available — and are cheaper than the private motor vehicle. Not to mention much healthier — physically, mentally, city-wise; in many ways. For those occasions where a motor vehicle is a good choice, why waste a lot of money on ownership?
Another way of looking at the cost factor — living in Vancouver is expensive. Forgoing private motor vehicle costs is a good way to find extra money for housing (primarily). So there’s an element of necessity here.
The sharing economy rings a big bell with people in Vancouver. It just makes so much sense. The concept applies to more than motor vehicles and is taking hold of people’s imaginations.
Anybody else wish Vancouver Car2Go would follow Portland’s lead and put bike racks on most of the cars?
Personally I find with Car2go and Evo it is a substitute for a taxi. I only use it for one way travel. If Uber was here I would use it less since the cost of an uber ride is only slightly higher than a car2go ride. If you factor in the time it takes to walk a few blocks to find the car2go and park it the compare that to convience of an uber driver picking me up and dropping me off, I would be less likely to use Car2go.
Vancouver is one of the few high density cities in North America without Uber that is why Car2go is succeeding. Vancouver is a niche market.
Remember, Uber is running massive operational revenue losses due to artificially low rates charged to customers. In places where they take over and destabilize the cab industry (San Fran), they’ve been found to artificially create surge pricing, and you can expect that as they get more control over areas, rates will go up.
Rates aren’t low because of the business model, they’re low in order to drive out competition so they can raise them later.
That is a good point. I would still push politicians for Uber though and with proper regulation foster other uber like services to bring competition and good pricing.
Agreed about good regulation, the problem is that Uber is a taxi company masquerading as private citizens offering rides to others. The only clear argument I’ve heard about why it shouldn’t be regulated as a taxi company is that existing taxi regulations are stupid, which, while true, is not exactly that good of a reason for them to not be regulated at all.
I’m also not convinced that a company like Uber can survive if forced to treat its employees with the legal protections that employees are afforded in our society.
To be clear I do not want to use taxi regulations for uber or other similar companies. I would argue good regulation will foster more competition and if Uber can not survive then so be it.
I know a lot of people who use car share. Some live in the West End with very limited parking options and many others in compact transit efficient areas. Vancouver is a very expensive place to live and many people understand the cost of owning a vehicle (~$10,000 per year) and realize they can increase their standard of living without making any sacrifices.
I know a few people who have two memberships; one with Modo and one with Car2Go, as Modo is good for out and back and Car2Go is great for one way trips.
The memberships with Zipcar and Car2Go are good to have when travelling to other cities.
Part of the answer is how car-share spaces have spread quickly in private developments through a clever municipal incentive. For many years, Vancouver has allowed developers to reduce the amount of parking constructed, which as we all know is very expensive to build, by five spaces for every 1 car-share space provided by the developer, INCLUDING the initial car. Almost every developer takes the City up on that opportunity. It’s one of the key reasons car-share has spread quickly.
Other cities have struggled to find space for car share parking, and have had to depend on limited at-grade public land opportunities, because developers haven’t always been willing to provide it in private developments. Thus this municipal incentive has been strategically effective.
It should be noted, this is an example of how keeping some parking minimums in place, however small, can be strategically advantageous as a bargIning chip, rather than getting rid of parking minimums entirely as other cities have done.
Regards,
Brent Toderian
Meanwhile, you’ve managed to create yet another constituency in favour of maintaining parking minimums. Not good.
I believe that advocating minimum car parking as a way of facilitating car share is misleading, mainly because this is only really a benefit to car shares like Modo that are picked up and dropped off in the same location. The blog post is primarily about Car2Go a service that mostly relies on on-street parking so I fail to see how minimum parking requirements are helping this mode of transport. We have a new tower going in on Davie & Bidwell that is building 4 levels of underground parking in a neighbourhood with a walk score of 93 and every service and amenity possibly available within a 10 minute walk. There is no way 3-4 Modo spots in this new building warrant this huge added cost to the development.
One of the major differences I find between Toronto’s Car2go offering and Vancouver’s has to do with where you can leave the vehicles. I would say that the number of multi-modal-minded-millenials are similar but in Vancouver, Car2go is a lot more useable. There are many parking lots available and free on-street parking is plentiful. Toronto has older bones, which means narrower street and less plentiful parking. The freedom to end a trip anywhere is one of the most delightful parts of the car2go experience and I found it quite disappointing in Toronto. Not to mention that traffic speeds are MUCH slower there; comparatively we have almost no congestion in Vancouver.
Housing costs coupled with Vancouver’s sub-par wages. If you’re a millennial scraping to get by, the cost of keeping a car is a luxury.
I use it regularly. Cheaper by far than a cab, but far faster than a wobbly bus. Cheaper than a second car too. We downsized to one car from 2 since moving back here from Alberta. We often walk one way, say seawall from UBC to Granville Island or Kits or Olympic Village, then take the Car2Go back.
A good example where Smart Phones meet individual urban transportation needs, not met by the public transit system that is too slow, too inconvenient and to crowded.
Car2Go could have, should have, been owned by TransLink, not a private firm (Mercedes Benz). It hsows true innovation propelling mankind forward comes from the private sector primarily, with the support of the public sector (parking riles).
Hint: Uber could fill the gap in lower density off-hour transit requirements and Translink could be the biggest Uber user. That private sector lead with public sector support is missing here !
I’m with Mr. Ohrn- urban form and supporting multi-modal transportation options. Car sharing only works where people have other options to get around. Vancouver’s walkability and world-class transit system made it possible to start up here (when I joined the car co-op sixteen years ago, I had to take a bus to the nearest car, but it was a frequent bus. Now there are three modo cars within a block of my house, and usually some of the evo and car2go too, which I also keep accounts with.)
Also crucial was regulatory support- not just the developer incentives that allow less parking to be built in exchange for accommodating carshare vehicles(which was actually a pretty small influence on modo’s growth as I saw it. Cars in developments tended to be underutilised for the first few years, since they weren’t placed organically in response to member growth like the rest of the fleet.)
No, the make-or-break from the City end? PARKING. Some kind and rebellious soul deep in the bureaucracy sold us all-zone permits way way back before people even understood what the heck car-sharing IS, and many years later the City started setting aside street parking for modo and all the others.
Keeping a car IS expensive, and lots of people don’t want to. In the early years, we tried placing cars in suburbs, though, and it just didn’t work. Even with the same number of members per car living nearby, there was no surrounding network of options to fall back on. If someone had the car, everyone else was grounded. Minimal or absent transit, no taxis, everything too far away to walk? I tell people I’ll never ever move out of the city now because I’d have to own a car again.
I have to agree with Stephen Rees, but there are many other reasons as well. Perhaps the most salient is the residential growth of the West End and then the downtown – from about 40,000 in the 1970s to well over 100,000 population. Population density in these areas compares with Boston and Philadelphia. Walkability is even greater than these cities. Ownership of cars is less necessary and attractive if one can walk or cycle for most trips. Density in the East End and the Broadway corridor also contributes.
For North Van the success of car2go has certainly to do with transit – it’s there but not great. Limited bus connections/destinations, low frequency, unreliability and no express buses. Car2go is useful instead of or in combination with bus and SeaBus.
We here at VeloMetro are looking forward to exploring the space between a bike share and a car share. Many of the reasons why car shares are successful in Vancouver also apply to the large population without a driver’s license. We strive to address this underserved market.