As a regular user, I'd really like to be mad at car2go about this. Hell, I just took one in this morning to Southwest 9th and salmon from right next to the McDonalds on Burnside and 82nd. But this isn't really their fault, and if its what works for their business model then they have every right to do so.
I will point a finger, though, at the city in general and the PDC in particular for continuing to neglect development projects in the "annexed territories". It's starting to feel like shouting into the wind, pointing out the fact that places like East Side industrial, Lloyd center, old town, PSU, etc etc probably don't really need those development dollars. East of 82nd, or as I like to call it, the other Portland, most definitely do need them. And if there were commercial centers that were developed out there, people would drive to them and make car2go coverage a logical business move. It would also probably relieve a lot of the pressures on the rental market, increased congestion in the urban core, conflicts with NIMBY property owners over apartments/condos, etc.
Portland needs to wake up and realize that its golden era of the mid nineties to mid 2000 was due to the fact that there was room downtown for those conditions to happen. There's still room in Portland for it to happen, we just need to look forward, and not constantly live in the past.
Cars really did pile up in St. Johns — which is reflected in car2go's comments that way more trips ended in the nixed areas than began there.
But that's a transit issue.
It's reasonably easy to leave and return to St. Johns via Trimet during the day. It's much more inconvenient at night, once the 44 frequency drops and the already-infrequent 16, over the bridge, stops altogether. Hence car2go's immense one-way popularity in those parts of town.
I hope that's the same takeaway PBOT and Trimet are getting.
Denise is right. Once Tri-met is done for the night, what option do you have? Uber has helped immensely, but in my neighborhood the 24-Fremont was reduced to every 30 mins several years back and now there's not ANY weekend service. Cue the one way ride to 82nd.
Car availability is rarely a problem. Getting the car to start once I've reached it, however, is frequently a problem. But true to PR gibberish, all of the rapidly disappearing perks to this service are framed as benefiting the customer. A dollar fee for each ride for increased insurance, and we were told we were getting the protection we demanded. They're removing the gas cards for anyone who picked up a little easy credit, and we're told that it's because they don't want us worrying about fuel. Now we're told that a vastly reduced scope of service is because we wanted better parking and more available cars. What?
After three years of frustrated use, I quit car2go earlier this year and it's been the best decision I've made in a while. I'm happier, healthier, and richer for it.
The majority of people I see wandering around east of 82nd don't look like they have the capacity to cross the street, much less rent a car or use the Internet.
From now until Aug 24th when they change service area - grab a Car2Go somewhere and bring it into area that's going to be cut. At end of your trip, make sure you or someone else picks it up in short order and takes it somewhere else - but KEEP the car inside this area.
Let's see how much of their fleet we can capture, and if we can account for more than 8% of their trips for a couple of weeks.
More than one person has observed "it would be funny if the whole fleet ended up on August 23rd parked in areas they're cutting.”
One way or another, we'll be sending them a message.
I will point a finger, though, at the city in general and the PDC in particular for continuing to neglect development projects in the "annexed territories". It's starting to feel like shouting into the wind, pointing out the fact that places like East Side industrial, Lloyd center, old town, PSU, etc etc probably don't really need those development dollars. East of 82nd, or as I like to call it, the other Portland, most definitely do need them. And if there were commercial centers that were developed out there, people would drive to them and make car2go coverage a logical business move. It would also probably relieve a lot of the pressures on the rental market, increased congestion in the urban core, conflicts with NIMBY property owners over apartments/condos, etc.
Portland needs to wake up and realize that its golden era of the mid nineties to mid 2000 was due to the fact that there was room downtown for those conditions to happen. There's still room in Portland for it to happen, we just need to look forward, and not constantly live in the past.
But that's a transit issue.
It's reasonably easy to leave and return to St. Johns via Trimet during the day. It's much more inconvenient at night, once the 44 frequency drops and the already-infrequent 16, over the bridge, stops altogether. Hence car2go's immense one-way popularity in those parts of town.
I hope that's the same takeaway PBOT and Trimet are getting.
Let's see how much of their fleet we can capture, and if we can account for more than 8% of their trips for a couple of weeks.
More than one person has observed "it would be funny if the whole fleet ended up on August 23rd parked in areas they're cutting.”
One way or another, we'll be sending them a message.
This suggestion also spawned at least one event:
nextdoor.com/events/368336/ (open to all)
... and there may be others.