Manhattan Beach City Council expressed a variety of concerns and doubts Tuesday night about Car2Go, a technology-based car rental service that intends to roll out its services in the 35 square miles spanning nine South Bay cities beginning next year.
Car2Go, which was launched by automaker Daimler in Europe four years ago, would distribute 300 to 350 two-seat vehicles similar to SmartCars available to its members throughout the proposed South Bay cities: Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lomita, Lawndale, Gardena and Torrance.
The South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG) is behind the efforts of bringing the car-sharing program to the South Bay, hoping to diminish the need for second or third cars per household.
“In the next eight years, we’re gonna have 14,000 new cars in the South Bay,” said Jacki Bacharach, the executive director of SBCCOG. “Where are they gonna go? We need to think about what alternatives people have to where to put those cars and not to have those cars.”
In a lengthy presentation at the meeting, Car2Go’s business development manager Walter Rosenkranz highlighted the key benefits of the program, which include short-term, point-to-point rental that doesn’t require the driver to return the rental car to its original spot.
“A member can pick up a car from one part of town, pick it up in Manhattan Beach, drive it to Torrance, end the rental, and walk away without worry about returning that vehicle,” Rosenkranz explained.
With council members Nick Tell and Amy Howorth absent at the meeting, the three-member council fired questions regarding the logistics of the car-sharing program and was wary about exacerbating the city’s longstanding struggle with lack of parking spaces. Car2Go requires exemptions from certain parking restrictions and would compensate cities for lost parking revenue where applicable.
Council members said revenue loss is not their main concern.
“[I’m concerned about] the prospect of these vehicles parking for an extended period of time in our metered parking spaces,” Mayor Pro Tem David Lesser said. “Particularly in downtown and the north area of our town, it will occupy our precious parking supply.”
Rosenkranz responded by citing the program’s success and quick turnover in similar areas like downtown San Diego and Portland. Car2Go currently operates in eight cities in the United States and seven cities in Europe.
“Do you know our city very well at all?” Council member Richard Montgomery asked. “The people and the socio-economical model is not the same as any of the cities you’re gonna see. Parking is an all-time demand.”
Both Lesser and Montgomery firmly expressed that they would not support a pilot program longer than a year, cutting short the three years proposed by Car2Go.
Mayor Wayne Powell asked Rosenkranz what would happen if Manhattan Beach decided to opt out of Car2Go’s South Bay program, to which he responded that the program “becomes very difficult to implement because city boundaries are not well defined.”
“So to have a patchwork of areas where a member can park, how does the member know which city’s jurisdiction [he or she is in]?” Rosenkranz said.
In spite of all the potential issues, council agreed that all decisions will be deferred until Car2Go makes its case to the city’s business community as well as the residents in downtown.
“The model itself makes sense, but until I know there is buy-in on not only the residents but the merchants down there in the business groups … I want to make sure they’re on board before I say yes,” Montgomery said.
