City creates new agency, Agence de mobilité durable
Montreal will be gaining control of all duties related to parking with the creation of its new Agence de mobilité durable, the city announced Wednesday.
The agency will be a paramunicipal corporation — the municipal equivalent of a Crown corporation — led by a nine-person board of directors. The board will largely be composed of administrators from Stationnement de Montréal, the organization that currently manages parking in the city.
Over the next few months, the agency will begin taking over Stationnement de Montréal’s duties, including the administration of public and private parking contracts, planning future parking spaces and the placement of charging stations for electric cars, explained Éric Alan Caldwell, the Montreal executive committee member responsible for transportation. The full transition of services to the new agency should be complete by next year.
Rather than making the agency a public service, Caldwell said this transition would allow the city to maintain Stationnement de Montréal’s expertise. He said the paramunicipal model has proven effective for parking agencies in other metropolises around the world, and it will allow the city to maintain some of Stationnement de Montréal’s structure.
“We believe this represents concrete action that will have a tangible impact on all Montrealers,” said Benoit Dorais, president of Montreal’s executive committee.
One of the agency’s biggest jobs will be to look at how parking connects to and works alongside different modes of transportation, such as Bixis and car sharing.
“It’s all about getting access to where you want to go,” Caldwell said. The mobility of citizens comes down to how public space is shared, he said.
Dorais said the agency will be able to implement digital signage and smart sensors to aid in parking management. It will also have the mandate to develop a tariff modulation strategy.
“We are convinced it will be more efficient, more innovative and more beneficial for all Montrealers,” he said.
The agency won’t have a mandate to reduce street parking, Dorais said, but Montreal, like other big cities, is always looking toward improving sustainable transportation, which could result in a reduction of parking spaces.
Weare convinced it will be more efficient, more innovative and more beneficial for all Montrealers.