Changes could soon come to Denver’s Car2Go fleet that the company hopes will complement the Mile High City’s outdoor lifestyle.
The car-share service to find out whether members wanted bike racks on the back of its fleet of tiny Smart cars, even if it meant no longer being able to open the tailgates.
While the more than 1,000 responses overwhelmingly favored bike racks, general manager Michael Pletsch said car-share users also made another wish clear: carry our snow toys.
Given the focus on bikes in Denver and in Colorado, the demand for racks, Pletsch said, was “really no surprise. While we will research the bike rack possibilities, we’re also definitely taking a look at the ski and board racks.”
A similar survey led to the recent installation of bike racks on Car2Go vehicles in Portland, Ore.
But according to preliminary data, Denver car-share members are even more bike-crazy than those in the Pacific northwest.
In Denver, 85 percent of responding members said they want at least half of the company’s 350 cars equipped with bike racks, and 74 percent said access to the tailgate is not as important a bike rack.
Portland respondents, on the other hand, voted 66 percent in favor of bike racks, but only 49 percent said access to the tailgate is not as important a bike rack.
The survey also shows that more than 75 percent of Car2Go’s Denver members bike at least once a week, while that number was only 68 percent in Portland.
The annual commuter survey from the Downtown Denver Partnership, published in December, .
Those who said they biked to work on the particular day they answered the survey jumped 43 percent from 2013.
About 7 percent of the partnership’s survey’s near-5,000 respondents said they bike to work most days of the week, which is a 26 percent year-over-year increase since 2013.
Car2Go announced in August it would shrink its Denver service footprint. That decision, which in poorer neighborhoods like North Park Hill, West Colfax and Globeville, resulted in public outcry and a to ensure equity.
Pletsch says he realizes some are upset, but reiterated that the decision was made data driven. The eliminated service areas accounted for only 14 percent of overall metro-area Car2Go usage, the company says.
In the remaining high-use areas, vehicles are used an average of 15-19 times per day. Cars in the now eliminated neighborhoods sometimes stood idle for two or three days, Pletsch said.
“(They) can’t sit more than 72 hours,” he said, explaining that Car2Go employees had to frequently go retrieve cars to avoid parking tickets.
Car2Go could reinstate some of the service areas, especially as public transit service expands. — a partnership that grew out of an abundance of cars increasingly left at Park-n-Rides and light rail stations.
“Public transportation is fantastic for people who have access to it, but if you live a few miles from the closest light rail station, how do you get to it?” Pletsch said. “We’re definitely always listening to the membership and willing to work with the City of Denver and wanting to be one of the options for the first mile and final mile of the commute.”
Car2Go Canada recently added four-door, five-passenger Mercedes vehicles to its fleets in Vancouver, B.C., Calgary, Alberta, and Toronto, Ontario — a development that Pletsch says he will also be watching closely.
“We do recognize that every single city is different that we operate in,” he said. “We’re always reaching out and looking for what it is that the members need and want.”
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or @LauraKeeney
