Carsharing in Vancouver

Carsharing is a service that provides its members with access to a fleet of vehicles on a minute, hourly, or daily rate. Members can reserve a vehicle online or by phone, and pick up the vehicle from a variety of locations within the Lower Mainland. Carsharing encourages the use of sustainable modes of transportation such as walking, cycling, and transit for most everyday trips, but gives access to vehicles on an as needed basis. Typically, several members throughout the day access a shared vehicle.

Benefits of carshare

  • people sharing cars means fewer cars on the road—one carshare vehicle is estimated to take up to twenty personally owned vehicles off the road.
  • on average 21% of carshare members gave up a vehicle after joining a carsharing program and 34% avoided buying a car since joining carshare.
  • improved parking availability as vehicle ownership drops and there is less demand for curb side parking.
  • reduced need for new public parking as vehicle ownership drops and alternative modes (walk/bike/transit) are used.
  • fewer cars means less traffic on our roads and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

City Council supports the use of carshare systems as part of Vancouver's goal to become the Greenest City by 2020. One way in which the City supports carsharing is by allocating on-street reserved parking spaces and providing residential parking permits for carshare vehicles to park in residential areas.

There are currently three carsharing organizations in Vancouver that are part of this program: Modo (previously known as Car Co-op), Zipcar, and car2go.

Designated On-street Carshare Parking Spaces

In most areas carsharing organizations park their vehicles in off-street lots however reserved on-street carsharing spots exists as well. These on-street spots make carsharing vehicles more accessible to residents and increase the visibility of this sustainable mode of transportation. There are currently 45 reserved on-street carshare spaces city-wide. It is anticipated that as carsharing continues to grow in Vancouver, so too will the number of carshare vehicles available for residents to use and the number of on-street parking spaces dedicated for carsharing vehicles.

Residential Parking Permit (RPP) Decals for Carsharing Vehicles

To further encourage the use of carshare systems in Vancouver, and to make it easier for residents to forgo ownership of personal vehicles, the City allows carshare organizatons to purchase RPP decals. This allows members to park a decaled carsharing vehicle in any of the City’s RPP zones (By-law No. 2849 section 23.1) (PDF, 1.18MB). Carshare vehicles are also permitted to park in Resident Parking Only (RPO) zones citywide. This gives carsharing vehicles the same access to neighbourhood parking that is given to residents’ personal vehicles.

Facilitating the use of carsharing vehicles in RPP/RPO areas has the potential to decrease the demand for street parking as residents are provided with an alternative to owning (and needing to park) their own vehicles. This initiative encourages carsharing by increasing the convenience of using the vehicles.

Allowing carshare vehicles to park in RPP/RPO zones and allocating reserved on-street parking spaces for car-sharing vehicles will make carsharing vehicles more accessible to residents and provide a more visible transportation alternative. This is consistent with Council’s goal of supporting carsharing and lead to increased use of this form of sustainable transportation. These actions are consistent with the City’s Transportation policies and the goals of the Greenest City Action Team.

Learn more about Reserved On-street parking spaces and Residential Parking Permits for Car-Sharing Vehicles (PDF, 206KB)

For more information on carshare organizations operating in Vancouver, visit:

 

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