A new car sharing company appears in Toronto

After some serious contention concerning car-sharing in Toronto this year, a new company has appeared on the map. The contention comes after Car2Go abandoned Toronto citing unfair parking regulations this summer.

The new company, Communauto, operates in several cities but is based out of Montreal. Edmonton, Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal and Paris, France already have access to Communauto cars, and the company will be the “first member to join Toronto’s ‘Free-Floating Car-Share Pilot,’ which was officially launched in June,” according to CBC.

Car2Go pulled its car-sharing service out of Toronto, saying that “the pilot passed by council in April was overly restrictive, rendering its service ‘inoperable.’” Following this fallout, the city relaxed some of its residential parking rules for an 18-month pilot.

Parking wars

Car2Go caught the wrath of the city by eating up parking spaces as they expanded. They started “instructing … customers to park in any legal space, including in residential areas [which] angered some councillors and homeowners who lived in neighbourhoods where street parking is scarce.”

The density and traffic seen on city streets today lead the City of Toronto to start regulating car-sharing parking with a pilot program that featured some new regulations.

Car2Go was slapped with $1,500 parking permit fees for their fleet, which the company called “unprecedented.”

Allowances

In Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina, councillor Mike Layton attempted to loosen the rules on account of his ward’s dependence on Car2Go and similar car-sharing services.

“We had many people who depended on this roaming car-share service in Toronto,” said Layton. “It allows my family to have a car only when we need a car.”

Thus, in July, council adjusted the regulations that protected residential streets where “permit parking is [already] at 100 per cent capacity” and allowed for councillors to veto “car-share parking in their wards” as long as advance notice was given.

“The hope is a service like this allows people to own [fewer] cars, meaning, they’ll require less parking spaces on the street,” said Layton.

Communauto’s CEO Benoît Robert says "We know we have a huge impact on [the] reduction on demand for parking and usage of cars. That’s our main goal.”

Enchanté!