To cope with the growing demand and the lack of reservable vehicles, Communauto announced Friday the launch of a pilot project in collaboration with the City of Montreal and the Sustainable Mobility Agency, which will allow more flexibility in parking.
With the establishment of 90 “station-zones”, station vehicles, which can be reserved up to a month in advance, will no longer have to be released in the parking lot where they were borrowed. They will now be “parked on the street and can be anywhere within a defined perimeter”, following the same rules as “FLEX” cars.
Several subscribers to the car-sharing service “suffered last summer from an imbalance between the ‘FLEX’ offer and the supply of vehicles that could be reserved in advance”, said in a press release. the CEO of Communauto, Benoît Robert.
The pilot project will begin with the establishment of 21 “station-zones” in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough – where the idea has already been tested –, 11 in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, and 7 in Mercier- Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. It will then extend to the boroughs of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Le Sud-Ouest, Outremont, Verdun, Ville-Marie, Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension, and will end at the end of November 2023.
“Montréal is pleased to be a leading player in car-sharing development,” said the city’s transportation and mobility manager, Sophie Mauzerolle.
According to a survey of its users, 78% of members of the car-sharing service have since “sold or given up on buying a car” and “reduced the kilometers traveled annually by 34%”.
New vehicles
The creation of “zone stations” will allow Communauto to expand its fleet of 885 vehicles, including 710 that should be in service this summer. Among them are minivans… and only 80 electric vehicles.
A figure “below” the expectations of Communauto, which says it is facing the reduced availability of these cars on the market.
Around 100 stations will also open in 2023, notably in Saint-Laurent and Rivière-des-Prairies, and the “FLEX” zone will be extended to Lachine and Montréal-Nord.