Dr. Alex Bigazzi, an assistant professor in UBC’s Department of Civil Engineering, was recently interviewed by the Vancouver Sun on changes to Vancouver’s car-sharing services. Vancouver had four popular services: Evo, car2go, Modo and ZipCar. However, as of February 29th, car2go was pulled out of Vancouver and all of North America citing the “volatile state of the global mobility landscape.” This car-sharing service was incredibly popular in Vancouver with 1,200 cars and 20,000 members.
Although it would seem that car2go’s departure would create a huge hole in the market, Dr. Bigazzi states that “Vancouver’s car-sharing landscape, which [now] includes Evo, Modo, and Zipcar, is safe and healthy.” One of the main reasons that Vancouver’s car-sharing services won’t be impacted is due to the city’s multimodal transportation system that includes “really good transit, and lots of opportunities for walking and cycling and high-density neighbourhoods that dissuade driving and encourage non-car travel.” Due to the demand, Dr. Bigazzi says that the current car-sharing companies in Vancouver “won’t be leaving here anytime soon.”
To read the full Vancouver Sun article, click here.