The CarSharing Association (CSA) comments on Minneapolis public on-street parking policies

The City of Minneapolis recently amended its carsharing pilot project to allow multiple carsharing operators to access public on-street parking spaces, instead of awarding exclusive parking privileges to a single operator.

The CarSharing Association (CSA) supports municipalities and public transit authorities that want to integrate shared-vehicle mobility systems into transportation and land use plans, but cautions that policy makers should consider all the benefits and risks when granting access to public resources.  Specifically, municipalities and public transit authorities should require that carsharing organizations demonstrate how their services reduce overall demand for parking, reduce traffic congestion, and reduce CO2 emissions.  Public policy makers should also evaluate potential carsharing partners by using the industry’s Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice to ensure that communities and carsharing members receive the affordability, convenience, and environmental benefits that carsharing provides.   The CSA believes that no single carsharing operator should be granted exclusive access to public on-street parking.   The CSA encourages municipalities and public transit authorities to employ an open and transparent consultation process with community stakeholders to ensure fair and equitable outcomes in shared-vehicle mobility planning.

Montréal has been elected host city of the 62nd UITP World Congress and Mobility and City Transport Exhibition, to be held in 2017, the year of Montréal’s 375th anniversary. The decision can be attributed to the combined efforts of the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) and the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), with the support of CUTA and others. The congress will be held from 13-17 May, 2017 and will attract over 9,500 delegates and visitors from more than 80 countries, as well as 350 exhibitors, and will be combined with the 2017 CUTA Annual Conference.

The largest carsharing not-for-profit in the United States has released a report the quantifying the social, environmental and economic impacts of its shared vehicle fleet on the community of San Francisco.  Measurable reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and vehicle miles travelled improve the city’s air quality and traffic congestion.  Individual member-drivers have save thousands of dollars annually by sharing cars instead of owning their own vehicles.  City Carshare plans to double the size of its electric vehicle fleet to 36 cars by the end of 2013.  For more info, please see the City CarShare factsheet with all the numbers.

A new carsharing service called Autopartage Codiac Autoshare is expected to launch in Moncton, New Brunswick with four vehicles later this year. The service will be classic, two-way carsharing where members pay for vehicle use by the hour and/or by the kilometer, pick up and drop off the vehicle at the same “home” location. See the group’s Facebook page for more information.

Shared-vehicle mobility is a complement to public transit systems.  The CarSharing Association is encouraging people to “get out of private car ownership” by presenting people with a multi-modal array transportation choices including walking, biking, bus, train and carsharing.  Our member organizations have worked with local transit authorities and municipal governments to secure strategic locations for shared cars at transit hubs, allowing travellers to conveniently use both shared cars and public transit to make trips that would be difficult using public transit alone.

The Canadian Urban Transit Association conference will be held in St. John’s, NL from June 1 to June 5, 2013.  For more information on the CUTA conference, please visit http://www.cutaactu.ca

The City of Montreal wants to know what the people think of one-way carsharing.

In other North American cities, Car2Go has introduced one-way carsharing services and secured on-street parking privileges with local government without public consultation.  For example, Car2Go deployed 150 vehicles in Calgary last July after making an agreement with the Calgary Parking Authority. Some of Calgary’s residents weren’t happy about it, but for the most part, Car2Go has been a success with more than 15,000 people signed up to be drivers.

The CSA supports municipal governments using an open and transparent process to evaluate applications from businesses that wish to make use of public spaces.

HOURCAR announced a major expansion today. The Twin Cities homegrown car-sharing operator will increase its fleet to at least 70 vehicles over the next 18 months, extending service to as many as 3,500 users in diverse Minneapolis and Saint Paul neighborhoods. Funds for the expansion were provided by the McKnight Foundation and the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative.

www.hourcar.org