Ranked number 3 on the North American Shared Mobility City Index, or the SMCI, Montréal, although not the capital of Canada, is depicted as ‘cultural capital’ of Canada and is predominantly French speaking.
At the time of the creation of the SMCI in 2015, Montreal was one of the few cities with an open tender for carsharing companies. It has put out strong incentives for existing carsharing companies to change their fleet to electric vehicles.
Now, in 2016, the city has unveiled a plan to allow 1,000 electric car-sharing vehicles in Montreal by 2020. According to the plan, the city will also take charge of issuing parking permits for car-sharing vehicles, previously a borough responsibility. Bolloré, has expressed an interest in establishing in Montreal as well as three other companies: BYD (Build Your Dreams), Mitsubishi and ZipCar.
The city will pay to deploy a network of 1,000 charging stations within five years that will be accessible to all car-sharing companies and anyone who possesses an electric vehicle.
Density
Montréal is the largest city in the province of Québec, and is ranked #4 on Urban Density, following Vancouver, B.C., San Francisco and New York City, the highest ranked city in the SMCI North America.
Mobility Patterns
Montreal is also ranked high for Mobility Patterns. It is the top ranked city within Canada for non-car commuting, with over 20% of residents commuting on public transit. More residents using an alternative option of mobility instead of a single-occupant car can be an indicator for support in shared mobility.
Sustainability
Montréal is notably the highest ranked city in the global SMCI for Sustainability. It supports mobility specifically in its sustainability plan, with a special permit for station-based as well as free-floating carshare and bylaws supporting bikeshare. Additionally, it is one of very few cities that had an open tender for carshare in 2015.
Shared Mobility Services
As the plan of the mayor suggests, there is room for more carshare providers. So far Montréal has two carshare providers, Communauto, Canada’s oldest car sharing company which offers station-based and one-way as well as car2go. Montréal is the birth-city of the bikeshare system bixi, which is now featured in many North-American cities.
Parking Cost
Parking cost in Montréal are medium to high. Montréal is ranked #6 on the North American SMCI for parking cost. The average cost for parking downtown in a garage in Montréal is 6.4% of the median annual household income. High parking cost in the downtown area can be seen as supportive of carsharing, as with carshare the user would not need to pay for parking.
You can find out more about the SMCITM here.
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