Bob Collins
What was your favorite Car2Go moment, St. Paul?
The Pioneer Press’ Julio Ojeda-Zapata reports today that the car-sharing service wants to cut back its operations in the city. It’s only been in St. Paul for 17 months, and now it wants to serve only high-use areas.
The move, which mirrors cutbacks by car-sharing operations in other cities, raises questions about the viability of transportation-sharing schemes if only certain neighborhoods can get access to them.
The new service area would be limited to an area in the middle of the city, along I-94. If you’re in the northern, southeastern and southwestern sections of the city, you’re out of luck. The “middle of the city”, of course, is already where the most transportation options — the Green Line, for example –already exist.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the areas to be left out include lower-income areas of the city.
“I’m not real thrilled with it,” City Council President Russ Stark tells Ojeda-Zapata. “But apparently what they’ve communicated to Public Works is that it’s this or nothing.”
By limiting the geographic area of the city, Car2Go hopes to make its vehicles more available to … let’s call them … “the privileged” users.
Last month, the Star Tribune reported Car2Go wants to cut back its service to North Minneapolis.
Archive: Does Car2Go have a city-wide obligation? (NewsCut)
