A Car2Go vehicle drives past the City of Cuernavaca Park in Denver. (Cyrus McCrimmon, Post file)
For more than a year, one-way car-sharing service Car2Go has announced .
But a big rollback this week , prompting a City Council member to question whether a look at the city’s rules is in order. Many of the neighborhoods affected by Car2Go’s home service area contraction are poorer areas, including West Colfax, Globeville and North Park Hill.
Denver City Councilman Paul Lopez. (Handout)
“I think it’s within our purview to revisit that permit (type),” said Councilman Paul Lopez, who represents west Denver. So far, it’s unclear if some of his colleagues will agree.
He’s been here before. Three years ago, Lopez pushed unsuccessfully planned as part of a big expansion in poor and minority neighborhoods, rather than concentrating only on the city core.
Focusing on where their systems are most used might be sound business practice, Lopez said, but that perpetuates a fairness issue for operators that depend on public rights of way or permits. “They cherry-pick neighborhoods and it creates inequity in neighborhoods. Everything we’ve been working against is to remove that inequity. Definitely, I think it’s something that’s worthy of a conversation.”
Seattle’s City Council did use its leverage on Car2Go, passing an ordinance requiring the company to serve all city neighborhoods.
“If we’re providing special permits, and if there’s a precedent like in Seattle, then those are best practices that we should consider,” Lopez said.
Car2Go spokeswoman Dacyl Armendariz told The Denver Post Wednesday that the decision was based on market research and a goal of reducing the likelihood that customers have trouble finding available cars along city streets. “These evaluations are absolutely critical to our overall growth and sustainability of our business,” Armendariz said, “and this was not an easy decision for us.”
