City to meet with Car2go officials this week

City staff will be sitting down with officials from Car2go this week to try to understand why the carshare giant announced suddenly that it would be folding operations in Calgary.

The German-based company, which provides short-term car rentals through an app, said Friday that it would be ceasing operations in Calgary and four U.S. cities, citing a “highly volatile” transportation market.

“We are going to sit down this week with officials from Car2go and have discussions about the background on their decision. Was it the city’s regulatory process that was a big part of the decision?” asked Coun. Evan Woolley Monday. “Was it the global market?”

Woolley said the city needs to determine the value of the car-share service to Calgarians who rely on it to get around the city, as well as the firm’s value in terms of municipal parking revenue. Having that data, said Woolley, will enable council to decide on possible regulatory changes to either enable the company to stay or ensure another service can take its place.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi suggested Monday that changes in the marketplace and ownership of the service might now bode well for the company. He said the firm has had to adapt and respond to the popularity of other car-sharing apps and the merger of Car2go with BMW’S rival car-share service, among other changes.

“When the market changes you have to adapt. Certainly that company has gone through a bunch of changes and mergers,” said Nenshi. “When you pull out of many, many markets to focus on your core markets, sometimes that’s a platform for further growth, but usually isn’t.”

But Nenshi sounded skeptical when asked if council would support offering regulatory changes or inducements to retain Car2go, including lowered parking rates or subsidies.

“It all comes down to math. If we believe that other people will park in those spots and pay the same amount, then we ought not to be offering subsidies to some people versus other people,” said Nenshi.

However, said Nenshi, the city previously created discounted, dedicated parking for small vehicles, including Smart cars — which previously made up a significant amount of the Car2go fleet — and the city will have to factor in the potential loss of parking revenue in any future policy changes.

“This is a transportation service that some people value, it’s serving an important part of the community (and) making it easier to live in Calgary without having your own vehicle,” said Nenshi. “That’s good public policy and it’s what we call for. As a result there is a public policy imperative here to give people as many choices as possible. So I’m happy to engage in those conversations to figure out how to do that.”