Quebec car-share biz drives into town

BEN SPURR Four months after Car2Go shut down its Toronto operations claiming the city’s regulations made its free-floating, car-share business unworkable, another company is planning to try its luck under the new rules.

Car-sharing companies have traditionally operated using parking spaces designated specifically for the service’s vehicles. A “free-floating” model allows users to pick up and drop off a car without having to return it to the same spot.

On Tuesday the city will issue the first permit under its freefloating car-sharing pilot project to Communauto, a Quebec-based company that already has operations in 12 locations in Canada. The company declined to comment Friday.

But Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina), who has pushed his colleagues to support free-floating carsharing, said the issuance of the permit was good news.

“Car-sharing in general is an attempt to try to get less cars in the city,” he said. “It actually does reduce car ownership, the need for a second car, the need for a car entirely, because you always have access to one.”

Car2Go suspended its Toronto operations in May, saying the city’s rules were too onerous. At the time the company said 80,000 people in Toronto used its services.

Mayor John Tory responded at the time by calling the decision “unfortunate,” but blamed Car2Go for its decision to “walk away from a clear path towards regulations that would allow them to operate in our city in a reasonable, compatible way.”

He predicted other companies would be willing to abide by the city’s rules, and Communauto vindicated his position by announcing plans to come to Toronto.

Under the rules of the pilot, which launched in June and is scheduled to last18 months, the city will issue up to 500 overnight on-street permits to each car-share company that signs up, for a maximum of 2,000. The permits will cost the companies almost $1,500 per vehicle per year, plus tax.

The operators must exclude streets or areas that are already at 95-per-cent capacity or more for residential parking permits from their service areas by using technology.

The cars can’t be left in any place over two days, or on a street where one of the company’s cars is already parked. Operators will have just two hours to move a vehicle that’s parked on the same street as another one of its cars.