The City of Calgary and Communauto, the oldest and largest Canadian carsharing organization announced the launch of a new carsharing service: Communauto FLEX.
“I know Calgarians have been looking forward to the return of a car share service,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi. “Communauto FLEX will provide an affordable and convenient option, strengthening Calgary’s transportation network so individuals and families can get where they need to go.”
Starting today, an initial fleet of 150 cars will be deployed in an area covering 26 square kilometres from 50 Avenue S.W. to 21 Avenue N.W., and from 37 Street S.W. to 17 Street S.E. The launch of the service was made possible by City Council’s approval of the revised Carshare Parking Policies and Traffic Bylaw earlier this year. “A new three-tiered pricing structure was implemented for operators who want to offer one-way carshare trips. This offers predictability and flexibility for carshare companies due to their unique operating model,” says Eric MacNaughton, Senior Transportation Engineer.
Tiered pricing for on-street parking
- Tier 1: The $450 fee per year, per car, for Tier 1 is unchanged from The City’s current policy and allows carshare operators to park vehicles in unpaid and residential permit spaces. Tier 1 does not include the downtown core.
- Tier 2: costs $840 per year, per car, includes parking in residential, unmetered and metered zones outside of the downtown core.
- Tier 3: $1440 per year, per car. Allows operators to use on-street parking in all priced areas, in residential areas and in Calgary’s downtown core.
The City will also apply a 50 per cent discount to the annual fees for fully-electric carshare vehicles, consistent with the actions in Calgary’s Climate Resilience Strategy and Electric & Low-Emission Vehicle Strategy. The policy change also allows carshare vehicles to park beyond posted time limits (for locations with a limit of 1 hour or longer).
The service, that will roll out jointly with its twin service in Edmonton, has no monthly fee and its usage costs $0.45/minute, $15/hour or $50 for one day and $35 the following days. For day trips, 100 kms are included in the trip price, and additional kms are billed at $0.20/km. Other plans are offered allowing people to use cars for $2.95/hour, plus $0.29/km, with fuel and insurance included.
In the next few weeks, interested people can pre-register or become beta-testers with the exclusive use of a car for free, until the complete fleet is available. The service will start regularly during the month of September. To register people can visit calgary.communauto.com.
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