Carshare Users Can Park for Free at Metered Spaces, Vancouver, 2019

In an effort to increase carshare usage in Vancouver, the city recently announced a pilot project that will allow carshare users to park for free for up to two hours at metered parking spaces. This pilot project was announced in July 2019 and Evo carshare was the first to participate in this program signing an agreement September 12, 2019.  The agreement will allow Evo’s carshare members to end their one-way carshare trip at a metered parking space. Evo is covering the full cost of using the metered parking. Having access to metered parking will add over 10,000 parking spaces to to the Evo parking network.  Evo operates 1,500 hybrid vehicles and has 140,000 members that will benefit from this service.   Previously, carshare members were only allowed to park in Resident Permit Parking and Resident Parking Only zones.  The City estimates that the program could yield an estimated $250,000 per month in parking costs from carshare operators.

Share Now, formerly Car2Go, is evaluating the feasibility of this program for its more than 200,000 Vancouver members and its vehicle fleet of over 1,200 vehicles.

Other carshare operators in Vancouver include Modo, a non-profit carshare cooperative, and Zipcar.

The investment that the City of Vancouver has made in carshare through supportive policies, such as the Vancouver Transportation Demand Management plan, that, among other things, requires carshare in new multi-family residential and commercial developments, help to explain its impressive market share of 34 percent of adults in Vancouver having a carshare membership.

The Vancouver Carshare Parking Bylaws (see page 22) outline the specifics of the pilot program.

Updated September 2019