Yesterday, leaving the office on W 5th, I noticed a car2go branded smart car out front of Austin City Lofts. Maybe Mayor Will Wynn was getting a test drive? Earlier this year the Statesman reported the car share initiative would work like this:
“The city will set aside urban-core parking spaces for 200 of Daimler’s “Smart” cars. Rather than paying for the spaces, Daimler will let city employees use the cars for a number of hours that’s equal to the monetary value of the spaces. (That amount hasn’t been determined yet; it will be negotiated over the next few weeks, city officials said.)…The program will start in October and run for six months. Daimler will pay for fuel, maintenance and insurance during that time, said the city’s transportation director, Robert Spillar.”
I’d like to point out that Austin’s first viable car share program, Austin Car Share, was developed assisted by city council candidate elect (!) Chris Riley.
-Jude
[Thanks to Mark for the clarification: Chris Riley was an active board member of Austin Car Share]
I popped in the Car2Go office to ask when the program would open to the public and they said perhaps June or July 2010.
Thanks for getting Austin CarShare’s back, Jude.
I remember seeing one of the car2go cars 2 weeks ago parked just on Guadalupe at UT. At the time I had no idea what it was so I looked it up. Now it seems more and more people are seeing them. I can’t wait to see how it goes during the trials.