The shortage of Communauto vehicles, a service vital to the residents of Park-Extension and the surrounding larger University of Montreal campus, is expected to persist at least until the end of 2023, due to long delivery times from car manufacturers. Until then, the car-sharing company hopes to be able to continue its growth, but calls on the City to accelerate the allocation of public parking lots in order to deploy more vehicles in the station for users.
“Even today, to have dedicated parking spaces, you have to submit a request to each of the boroughs. And it has to go through two counseling sessions. It’s heavy, it takes six months to have four spaces, whereas we need to add hundreds of places. We have to speed things up,” said Communauto vice-president Marco Viviani to local media.
According to him, the City of Montreal has been working “for some time” on the implementation of a more global plan for the development of car sharing. But the results are pending. “It’s something we can’t wait to see. It takes a policy to dictate the rules that we give ourselves to offer citizens this kind of service, which after all makes it possible to reduce the number of cars on the roads and, therefore, congestion, ”he concluded.
In October, the Urban Planning and Mobility Department made public its Action Plan to stimulate car-sharing. It reads that Montreal wishes to “give more space to shared vehicles throughout the territory”, by working with the boroughs to “multiply the reserved parking spaces”. The authorities even want to “encourage” integration “in private residential, commercial and institutional spaces”.
By 2025, Montreal also wants to “change mentalities about car sharing and the need to own a car”. Both for the population and for the employees of the City and its partners, vehicle sharing must become normal and logical.
In the office of Mayor Valérie Plante, we confirm that reflections are underway. “Ultimately, we want all Montrealers to be able to choose carsharing,” said press officer Catherine Cadotte.
