The car-sharing service Car2go will largely be steering clear of the south side during a pilot of the program—and transportation advocates are not happy.
The service, approved by aldermen March 28, allows members to check out a vehicle, usually a two-seater Smart car, and end their trip at any legal curbside parking space, which makes it handy for errands and traveling the first or last mile to or from a transit station. Although rates vary by city and size of car, users generally pay a onetime $5 fee, then either 41 cents a minute, $15 an hour, or $60 a day to use the service.
“There were a number of complicating factors in extending the boundary as far south as initially considered,” Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey said. “For the pilot program to work, we thought it made sense for the service area to be as contiguous and as simple as possible.”
To find out, I called just about every alderman whose ward was affected by the change, including Patricia Dowell (Third), Sophia King (Fourth), Leslie Hairston (Fifth), Patrick Daley Thompson (11th), Willie Cochran (20th), and Daniel Solis (25th). Thomas and Cochran’s offices didn’t provide a statement about the change, while a spokesman for Solis said the near-southwest-side alderman didn’t request any changes to the service area.
After I spoke with the aldermen, CDOT’s Claffey confirmed that the coverage map was revised in response to their concerns. “We really didn’t want a jigsaw puzzle,” he said. “The goal was to have the Home Area be as contiguous as possible and as functional as possible. . . . If the pilot is successful we want to be able to expand it to as much of the city as possible.”
