Car2go’s fleet of Smart Cars will be available in Columbus starting on Saturday — which means that anyone who has signed up for a membership will be able to hop in one of the blue and white two-seaters and go. The cars will be parked on-street throughout a 30-square mile service area, which includes Downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods as well as a large chunk of Clintonville and Linden. Pricing is by the minute, and reservations are not required — a mobile app will tell you where the nearest car is, and a membership card will get you in.
“The free-floating model is fundamentally different than other car-shares, where you block out a car for an hour, which ends up being less than an hour when you factor in parking,” says Nicholas Cole, president and CEO of car2go North America, adding that 250 of the cars should be on the streets by the end of the year, with the ability to add more based on demand.
Expectations are high for the Columbus market, which will be the tenth US city to host the service, and just the second in the Midwest (Minneapolis just launched recently).
“When you look at the profile of our cities – we look at cities that are ‘progressive’ – especially in terms of what local government is doing – planning for growth, looking at transit,” explained Cole. “With their willingness to work with us and the recent launch of bike sharing, we think Columbus definitely fits into this category.”
While the target market for car2go and other car-sharing services is typically young professionals, Cole said that they’ve seen use across the demographic spectrum, with retirees and empty nesters signing up in particularly large numbers in certain markets.
As for the late fall roll-out, Cole said there are benefits and drawbacks to starting the service just when it is starting to get cold out.
“What we saw in Vancouver, where they rolled out during their rainy season — it’s harder to do events and festivals to get the word out, but on the other had, people were out using the cars immediately to get around in the bad weather. And the cars are our best advertisement.”
More information can be found online at Columbus.car2go.com.
Photo by Walker Evans.