The city of Montreal wants to know what the public thinks of giving car-sharing services free parking throughout the city.

Two car-sharing companies have approached the city to set up a Bixi-style service for cars, where drivers would be able to pick up a vehicle without any notice, drive it wherever they need, then drop it off at a different location.

This is a departure from Communauto's current business, which lets users pick up and return cars to the same location and requires drivers to reserve a vehicle in advance.

The other company wanting to set up in Montreal, Car2Go, offers a no-reservation car-sharing service in Vancouver, Toronto, and other cities.

Real Menard, who holds the transportation portfolio on the city's Executive Committee, says Montreal officials support the idea.

"A system where people would be allowed to take a car at one place and to drive and to leave the car in another place. They would pay for the time they use the car, and they don't need reservations," said Menard.

He expects public consultations will begin soon and will last two months.

"There's no cost for the taxpayer of Montreal. The user will pay, but for Montreal, we don't have any costs," said Menard.

However there will be some costs - or lost income - for a viable car-sharing service.

Both companies say they will need access to at least 300 free parking spaces scattered throughout the city.

Those parking spaces might also be transformed into charging stalls for electric vehicles.

"We think that car sharing in general is an ideal platform for electric cars. That's why we already have 30 cars in our fleet, and for this project it would be even more interesting," said Mario Viviani of Communauto.

Some drivers are worried about the loss of more parking spaces to a sharing service -- saying that Bixi has already reduced the number of parking spaces in the city.

Taxi drivers are also not impressed, saying the city should not be assisting businesses that are in direct competition with their trade.

"It's good for people, but not good for taxis," said one driver.

Menard suggested there could be ways taxi drivers could be compensated, such as frequent car-sharing users receiving coupons for taxis, or by giving taxis access to reserved lanes between downtown and the airport.