Vancouver car-share drivers can soon drop their vehicles in metered parking spaces for free

The City of Vancouver has approved new rules about when and where people can park car-share vehicles.

The element of the new regulations that may stand out to most users of services like Share Now/Car2Go and Evo is a provision allowing vehicles to be dropped in a metered parking space at the end of a trip.

The cost of the parking will be borne by the car share companies, not the driver. The city estimates that provision could actually net the municipality an additional $150,000 to $200,000 in revenue per year.

The rule changes would also allow car-share drivers who are taking a multi-stop trip to park for up to two hours at a meter for free.

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And in a bid to push car share fleets towards electric vehicles, the city will also waive the annual $77.19 per-vehicle parking permit fee it charges car share companies, if the vehicles are zero-emission.

To offset that cost to the city, Vancouver will cap the new, free permits at 50 per company per year. With that cap in place, the city estimates the changes would cost a maximum of $84,000 annually.

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A final element of the rule changes will see the city charge car share companies a flat fee to reserve permanent parking spaces for their vehicles in spaces that would normally be occupied by meters.

Under the old policy, companies were charged 66 per cent of the total potential revenue a meter could generate per year. The city said that policy was discouraging companies from leasing spaces in expensive parts of the city.

It was not immediately clear when the new rules will take effect.