FAQs

Carsharing is a short-term car rental service that lets you rent a vehicle for as little as 15 minutes at a time (though more typically an hour or two.) Car sharing gives you the occasional use of a vehicle without having to commit to owning one of your own. It's especially well-suited to people who mostly get around on foot, bicycle, or public transit, but who still need access to a vehicle for a few hours a week for things like grocery runs, trips out of town, etc.

Car-sharing companies such as Communauto and ZipCar already operate in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and elsewhere, offering members the chance to save money and live a more sustainable urban lifestyle.

Yes! First you join the car share as a member. Then, members can reserve a vehicle online or through a phone app. When it's time to use the vehicle, the system allows them to unlock the car, get in, and drive away. This makes car sharing different from conventional car rentals, where you go to the rental agency, fill out paperwork, and then pick up the vehicle. With car sharing, all the paperwork, checking your licence, etc. happens once, up front, when you first join the car-sharing service.

Fleet vehicles are parked at permanent stations around town, located wherever there are enough members living nearby. You return the vehicle to the same place you picked it up.

Typical rates are about $8 an hour, plus 35 to 50 cents per kilometre. This charge includes insurance and fuel costs. Car-sharing companies usually charge a small monthly membership fee (about $3-$4 a month) and may ask for an initial, refundable deposit of a few hundred dollars when the member first joins. Compare that to the average car, which costs about $10,000 a year to own and operate, even if you barely use it!

It's all included. Insurance, fuel, and maintenance are all covered by the membership fee and rental rates.

Driving is the single biggest contributor to the average Canadian's greenhouse gas emissions, and the average vehicle is driven about 15,000 km per year. The less someone drives, the better for the environment.

Unfortunately, once someone buys a car, they tend to use it for most trips. One in five trips to work in Moncton are people in cars, alone, driving less than 3 km, a distance they could have walked in 40 minutes or less or biked in 10.

Car sharing lets you opt out of owning a vehicle and instead build your habits around walking, cycling, transit, and using a shared vehicle only when you really need it.  It also makes it easier to choose to live in a more walkable location like Downtown Moncton, because you don't need a parking space.

No, because shared vehicles aren't used for the same kind of trips as public transit. For example, you wouldn't rent a car for nine hours to drive to and from work, leaving it parked at work all day. 

Think of car sharing as part of a set of transportation options that each serve a different purpose. You might walk to work while your partner takes the bus to their job on a transit route; you rent a car from a conventional car-rental agency when you want to go away for a few days; you take a taxi home from a night on the town; and you use a car share vehicle for grocery runs or an afternoon at the beach.

Cars are expensive. When you add up the cost of insurance, fuel, maintenance, and the vehicle itself, the average car costs about $10,000 a year to own and operate. A lot of that money leaves Moncton and doesn't come back. If you can instead rely on a mix of walking, biking, transit, and the occasional use of a car-share vehicle, you can save a lot of money.

Car-sharing companies such as Communauto and ZipCar already operate in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and elsewhere, offering members the chance to save money and live a more sustainable urban lifestyle.