Two weeks ago, on June 28, Communauto* launched a one-way electric car-sharing pilot project in Plateau Mont Royal . That project will run until November.
The organization decided to launch the project after participating in a Montreal-led public consultation about one-way car-sharing in the city on June 11. It was held by the Commission de l’environnement et transport (http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_dad=portal&_pageid=6877,62467598&_schema=PORTAL)
The public consultation held on June 11th, about one-way carsharing, confirms the need to better document the effects this service will have on citizen’s mobility and on other transportation services, while taking into account Montreal realities,” said Benoît Robert, CEO of Communauto. “We believe such a system should be positioned as to complement the existing service offer for short trips rather than placing it in competition with other sustainable transportation actors such as taxis, the STM, BIXI and carsharing with reservation.”
One-way car-sharing allows subscribers to use their smartphones to pick up a car at the last minute, use it briefly and drop it off somewhere else. Credit or debit cards allow the user to pay for the short-term use.
Montreal was excited to extend its transportation network to include the new service.
This new type of automobile usage is a good way to improve transportation mobility,” said Réal Ménard, the executive committee member responsible for transportation in Montreal at a press conference in April. “The City of Montreal must continually improve our transportation network. We’re looking at self-serve one-way car-sharing in that light.”
The city does not intend to run the service, but plans to contract it out to a private company. Ménard said two companies have expressed an interest in setting up the service for Montreal: Communauto* and Car2Go.
Communauto versus Car2Go
Communauto (http://www.communauto.com/) is a Quebec-based company started by Benoît Robert, the chief executive officer, in 1994. It has 49 employees and operates services in Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Gatineau and Paris.
Car2Go Canada Inc. (https://www.car2go.com) is a Vancouver-based fully-owned subsidiary of the Daimler North America Corporation from Montvale, New Jersey that is run out of Austin, Texas. It was originally registered in Canada on February 11, 2011, just a few months prior to the launching of a one-way car-sharing in Vancouver on April 28, 2011. Communauto immediately sent a press release begging the City of Montreal to provide free spaces for its vehicles in return for one-way service expansion in Montreal that same week.
Car2Go has since launched services in Calgary and Toronto as well as Vancouver. The company officially registered in Quebec on March 18, 2013.
In his press conference two weeks later, Ménard said that he doesn’t expect a one-way car sharing service to cost the city anything, other than the parking facilities necessary to run it.
Parking spots becoming rare in Montreal
Parking spots are extremely contentious in the car-sharing arena, however, as a carefully worded press release by Communauto later the same day implies. “The decisions that the City of Montreal will take on the access to the necessary parking to allow for the proper functioning of this type of service will determine Communauto’s decision to embark or not on this new path.”
Communauto estimates that 300 new spots will be needed for one-way car-sharing, and it already rents about that number for its current two-way service.
Does one-way car-sharing have same benefits as reserved car-sharing?
In the same press release, the organization also took a mini-swipe at its competitor. “If current car-sharing with reservation offers, such as those offered by Communauto, have proven that they are able to reduce the number and the use of the car, it is not yet the case for the one-way car-sharing systems that have recently been implemented in numerous cities around the world. Thus this service offers interesting research possibilities for Québec universities and ideally the City of Montreal should pay particular attention to this part of the project.”
Car-sharing in Montreal already underway
Ménard invited the STM, Stationnement de Montréal, the taxi industry and citizens to participate widely in the public consultation, but no report has been released yet.
At the time, he said he expected one-way car-sharing in the city to begin by the end of 2013.
Instead, Communauto began offering it on June 28.
Notes:
*The author of this article is a member of Communauto.
A previous version of this article appeared on page 14 of the City Edition of the Suburban on May 15, 2013.
