Sustainable transportation has just gone cross-border.
Ottawa’s Vrtucar and Communauto, one of the largest car-sharing services in the world, announced a new agreement Thursday that will allow Ottawa members to access vehicles in Quebec, and vice-versa.
This allows car share members in Ottawa to use over 1,000 additional cars at 330 stations in four cities in Quebec, for a total of 1,200 vehicles in Ottawa and Quebec, said Vrtucar president Wilson Wood. Cities include Gatineau, Montreal, Sherbrooke and Quebec City.
In exchange, the 20,000 users in Quebec will be able to use Vrtucar’s fleet when they come to Ottawa.
The agreement “gives our members another reason not to own and operate a car in Ottawa,” Wood said. “This is taking car-sharing to the next level. Despite the Ottawa River, which can be very wide, we’re (closing the gap).”
People who use a shared car at home can now continue their green transportation habits away from home, said Wood.
“If someone lives in Ottawa and works in Gatineau, and they have to do something during the work day, they can still bike to work and use Vrtucar for their trip,” said Wood.
Vrtucar is also working with Via Rail to get a discount for Vrtucar users.
“Car-sharing been expanding across the country for years,” said Wood.
Vrtucar started 10 years ago as the country’s fourth car-share service. It is now one of about a dozen services.
“We’re looking to revolutionize transportation,” Wood said. “This is going to change the way people do transportation.”
