A bill that would help the car-sharing company car2go operate in Wisconsin is getting public hearings today in Senate and Assembly transportation committees.
The company allows its paying members to pick up one of its cars and drive it to their destination, leaving the car there for the next member. It’s sought to expand to Madison but faces an obstacle in state law: Its cars must currently meet local time limits for parking.
AB 322, however, would allow cities like Madison to negotiate with car-sharing companies if they want to exempt the companies from those limits.
The bill’s authors are state Sen. Jerry Petrowski, R-Marathon, and state Rep. Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva. August was among the lead backers of a law passed this year regarding ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft.
“This is a situation where we have people with an innovative business model who want to do business in Wisconsin, but can’t because of the way our laws are structured,” Petrowski said in a statement. “This bill simply allows local governments, if they want to, to work with them to allow a new option for transportation in their area.”
The company wouldn’t be the first in Wisconsin with car-sharing services. Zipcar serves Milwaukee and Madison already, and it recently acquired Madison’s Community Car service.
But in Wisconsin, Zipcar contracts with private companies and garages for assigned parking spots — and therefore doesn’t need to abide by city parking limits, spokeswoman Katelyn Chesley said. Zipcar users can then pick up and drop off the car at those spots, unlike car2go users, who can drop the cars off in more places.
If the bill passes, the city of Madison would likely put out an RFP for carsharing companies to see which one would provide the best option, said Scott Lee, the assistant parking utility manager at the city of Madison. Then, the city and company would work out logistics like how the city would get reimbursed for allowing the company to park in Madison streets.
Downtown Ald. Ledell Zellers, who used Community Car but hasn’t tried Zipcar yet, said she would likely be among those leading efforts to bring car2go to Madison, saying it would provide an affordable transportation alternative.
“I gave up my car when I could rely on a shared car service,” Zellers said. “I’m hoping that car2go would lead others to come to the conclusion of, ‘Yeah, I really don’t need to have my own car here. I can save money and hassle.’”
— By Polo Rocha
For WisBusiness.com
