Car2Go West Seattle expansion: The map, and the 1st vote

We’ve had an inquiry out for a while to Car2Go, asking for more details of their West Seattle expansion plans. Though they haven’t replied, we do have some new info thanks to the agenda for today’s City Council Transportation Committee meeting, which included their proposed map – here’s how West Seattle looks on it:

The darker blue area is the proposed “home area” – according to Car2Go, you can drive outside it, but you can’t leave a car outside it. They describe it in a letter to Transportation Committee chair Councilmember Tom Rasmussen:

As seen in the map below, we would like to include parts of West Seattle, including North Admiral, North Delridge, Alki, Seaview, High Point, and Fauntleroy Cove. The south boundary would be extended to Fauntleroy Way SW, SW Morgan Street, Sylvan Way SW, SW Orchard Street, Dumar Way SW, SW Holden Street, and Highland Park Way SW. The eastern boundary would be West Marginal Way SW, the West Seattle Bridge, and Harbor Ave SW. The home zone would expand all the way to Puget Sound to the West and North.

So most of southern West Seattle is out of luck for now – except for the sliver by the ferry docks. The main point of today’s Transportation Committee item was that Car2Go wants to increase its fleet to 500 cars – almost 200 more than it has in Seattle now. Brian Hawksford from Councilmember Rasmussen’s office tells us the plan won unanimous approval this morning and goes to the full City Council next Monday.

(P.S. Hat tip to Bruce Nourish for the map tip via Twitter.)

14 Replies to "Car2Go West Seattle expansion: The map, and the 1st vote"

  • jno March 12, 2013 (12:23 pm)

    I hope they’ll reconsider extending the boundary south to Westwood!

  • Tim M March 12, 2013 (12:27 pm)

    I saw a bunch of these down on Alki on Saturday, with a few reps trying to get people to try it out.

    Very interesting concept after looking at their website…very much like RedBox. Let your credit card do the talking with no human interaction. I’m sure this will find a sweet spot.

  • Tom March 12, 2013 (12:38 pm)

    Yes!!

  • Bruce Nourish March 12, 2013 (1:33 pm)

    This is great — makes places like Alki much more accessible to non-car-owners on the weekend, when getting there on transit is a huge pain.

  • Jake March 12, 2013 (1:35 pm)

    I signed up a couple months ago and have used Car2Go several times in north Seattle. It will be good to have access to these cars down in our part of town!

  • sacatosh March 12, 2013 (1:50 pm)

    And the southern end gets the shaft as usual. Awesome!

  • monroe1200 March 12, 2013 (2:51 pm)

    Great concept, except that they take up valuable street parking. It seems wrong that a company can use public spaces for private gains. I wouldn’t even be complaining about this, except that when there are literally 6 car2go’s parked on one street for 10 hours without being moved once. I see people circling the block to find street parking to no avail because of these cars using streets as its storefront. Seems a bit unfair, considering that if I use the bus and leave my car parked in front of my home for more then 3 days it will get a ticket and towed.

  • Happiness March 12, 2013 (3:26 pm)

    I’m also wondering where they will be parked. A few cars here and there? Or 50 cars on Alki, reducing available parking for restaurants?

  • Jenava March 12, 2013 (4:00 pm)

    Keep in mind they are tiny cars, so they don’t take up as much space as a normal car, truck or SUV.

    I signed up before I even heard about the West Seattle expansion, and I think it’s brilliant. Just waiting on my membership card..

  • ScottA March 12, 2013 (4:19 pm)

    The company does pay for parking ($1,330 per car per year according to this story: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020121286_car2go13m.html )
    I’ve read that GPS parking data will be used to add or subtract parking fees at some point based on where the cars were actually parked and when (I assume they’ll only be charged for paid spaces/times).
    The company only makes money when the cars are moving so they have no interest in cars sitting on streets for days on end. Give them and their crew a little time to work out the flow of cars and re-position when needed.

  • monroe1200 March 12, 2013 (5:31 pm)

    of course they have no interest in cars sitting, thats a no brainer, but yet they do all day long in the same spots and I’m sure that the issue has more to do with available parking for shoppers and the like then it does with what they are paying the city. In fact that just makes it more frustrating, that a company can come in and pay a set amount of money to hog the street parking and then if they didnt actually use the parking they will be refunded…what a bunch of B.S. When I have to pay for parking I dont get a refund on the left over time, in fact I cant legally even share that left over time with someone else to use. I will take a picture tomorrow morning to show you what a street filled with these “little cars” looks like and post it to this comment board. It doesnt matter how small they are if they still take up all of the PUBLIC parking!

  • jamjets March 12, 2013 (7:38 pm)

    I understand the parking issues, but IMO the concept is key to future urban living here. People who can’t or won’t use other transit can “get” this and make it work for themselves…

  • no March 13, 2013 (6:01 pm)

    These are sweet and like 50cents per minute. The whole point is you don’t pay for gas or parking !!!!!!!

  • B. R. March 19, 2013 (5:04 pm)

    Where’s the W. Sea promo code?!

Sorry, comment time is over.