The city's most popular car sharing service is shrinking its coverage area, leaving customers in the outskirts of the city without a ride. The Car2Go service area will shrink to 73 square kilometres from 114 effective Sept. 28, the company said. The smaller service area covers the parts of the city where 96 per cent of Car2Go trips are taken and 92 per cent of its members live — effectively cutting service to 8 per cent of its customers. The company says the move is designed to address shortages in the downtown core — a constant complaint from customers since the service began in 2012. "The sheer size of Calgary's Home Area does not allow members to easily access a Car2Go vehicle, as it requires our vehicles to be spread out too thin in low demand areas where they are idle 5.5 times as long," the company said. "We believe that this change will help ensure that our vehicles are in constant circulation, and only occupying fixed space for a limited amount of time," it added. The Texas-based company said it would leave the door open to returning to these areas as the city continues to grow. It is also exploring the possibility of adding designated parking spaces outside the newly-shrunken service area, it said.
Last recently we reported that it was planning to reduce its service costs in both Minneapolis and Denver to focus on profitable areas of both cities , and cut out activities in the less busy areas . That plan is now spreading to Calgary where Car2Go is abandoning 8 % of its customers in the city to focus on the other 92 % of customers who live in busier , more profitable areas . However , Car2Go have said they will return to these areas as the city continues to grow .