Car-sharing services to expand as rules relaxed
Montreal is making it easier to use car-sharing services by allowing vehicles to be picked up and dropped off in more areas, including large swaths of downtown.
The changes, expected to take effect in May, are part of the city’s effort to give Montrealers more transport options and to discourage the use of personal cars, Mayor Valérie Plante said Thursday.
Car-sharing is an essential part of sustainable mobility, she said, pointing to studies indicating every car-sharing vehicle helps eliminate between seven and 11 personal vehicles.
The two car-sharing services in Montreal — car2go and Communauto’s Auto-Mobile — have purchased permits that allow their cars to be parked in spots around the city normally reserved for residents.
As of May, those permits will allow the cars to be parked in 10 boroughs:
Ahuntsic-Cartierville
■ Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Damede
■ Grâce Sud- Ouest
■ Plateau-Mont-Royal
■ Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
■ Outremont
■ Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie
■ Verdun
■ Villeray—St-Michel—ParcExtension
■ Part of Ville-Marie (downtown).
■ The new areas to be covered include Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Outremont and Verdun, the latter two of which currently only allow the cars in limited areas.
But the biggest new coverage zones will be downtown, where car-sharing companies say there is pent-up demand among shoppers and workers.
Under previous mayor Denis Coderre, only electric car-sharing vehicles were allowed downtown. That severely limited service in a busy area, since only 85 of Montreal’s 1,050 car-sharing vehicles are electric.
Starting in May, all types of carsharing vehicles will be able to park in “residential areas on the periphery of the business district” — specifically west of Peel St. and east of Amherst St. That’s about half the downtown borough.
Car2go and Communauto, which had been frustrated by Coderre’s restrictive rules, welcomed the new approach at city hall and said they may add vehicles to their fleets, depending on demand.
“The barriers that blocked the expansion of free-flowing car sharing have been removed (and we can now serve) new territories where we know there’s demand,” said Marco Viviani, vice-president of Communauto, which has about 50,000 members.
Unlike its main service, under which drivers pick up and drop off Communauto cars at specific locations, the company’s 600-vehicle Auto-Mobile division allows drivers to drop off cars anywhere permits allow.
Eighty-five of its Auto-Mobile cars are electric.
“We finally have a partner for multimodal transportation” at city hall, said Jérémi Lavoie, general manager at car2go, which has 60,000 members and 450 vehicles in Montreal, none of which are electric.
He said car-sharing services are a must in a city’s mix of transport modes because they help reduce car use.
“It’s the missing element for many people to let go of their personal vehicle because for some specific trips — the classic example being groceries — people need a car,” Lavoie said.
Giving Montrealers the carsharing option for some trips encourages them to dump their personal cars and use public transit more, he said, adding that reduces pressure on parking and traffic.
Car-sharing vehicles currently can’t be left at parking meters but Plante said Montreal will study the idea of allowing the vehicles to be left at metered spots.
She also said the city wants to encourage car-sharing companies to use more electric vehicles.
Montreal is expected to reduce the amount it charges for permits for electric cars, Viviani said. He said the current system is “absurd” because it costs about $1,400 for a permit for an electric vehicle — $100 more than for a gas or hybrid car.
During the election campaign, Plante’s Projet Montréal party promised to improve access to car-sharing services, including downtown.
Its platform suggested Coderreera restrictions on self-service vehicles, which “limit the number of parking spaces and the type of vehicles offered, are a barrier to innovation and limit the availability of this service to Montrealers.”