Car-share service hoping for fewer barriers under Valrie Plante

The Auto-mobile car-sharing service says it's looking forward to fewer speed bumps with a new administration at Montreal city hall and maybe even expanding its service across the island.

"There was a kind of mistrust about this concept," said Marco Viviani, vice-president of strategic development at Communauto, which runs Auto-mobile.

"Everything was complicated," Viviani said. "All of our requests had to pass through a lot of verifications, and this was a big obstacle."

Projet Montral promised to get rid of the restrictions holding back car-sharing companies, opening up downtown Montreal to car-sharingand loosening restrictions on the use of universal parking permits.

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Right now, car-sharing vehicles are not allowed to park for free on city streets in the downtown Ville-Marie borough using the universal permits.

Only recently did the city create 55 street parking spaces downtown, but only for electric vehicles. However, most of Auto-mobile's fleet is made up of hybrid vehicles; few are fully electric.

Viviani says he's encouraged with what he's heard so far from the mayor-elect and her party.

"The cities have a crucial role in allowing a solution like car-sharing to pass from a good commercial initiative to something that has a real positive impact on the city and on the life of its inhabitants," he said.

Expand into 3 more boroughs?

Communauto's Auto-Mobile service is currently available in eight boroughs across the island.

Under the new Plante administration, Viviani says he hopes to expand the service into the Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Saint-Laurent and Ville-Marie boroughs, and maybe even increase the number of cars in its fleet.

Plante's commitment to support car-sharing also received an endorsement from quiterre, the Montreal-based environmental advocacy group.

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"One of the advantages we have with (Projet Montral) is they understand where sustainable transportation and urban transportation needs to go," said quiterre's Sidney Ribaux.

He says sustainable transportation includes a mix of car-sharing with cycling, walking and public transit. He agrees the barriers to car-sharing have to come down.

"We need to see these services everywhere in the city, and I would argue everywhere in the metropolitan area," said Ribaux.

"People really need to be able to use these cars in a much more easier way than the geographic restrictions we have right now."