A new app could spell the end of Montreal’s notorious parking woes.
CityParking allows users to rent out their residential parking spots like driveways or reserved spots to motorists, similar in concept to home-sharing app Airbnb. Designer Amin Dada said he came up with the idea after noticing a high level of demand for his own parking spot, which he had taken to renting out.
“It became hard to schedule who’s going to use it when,” he said. “Not only that, but I thought, why don’t I just rent it out to these people by the hour, but there was not platform to do it.”
Spot owners can list their space and rent it out for $2:00 an hour, with $0.50 going to the app company.
Vahid Zarif is a CityParking user and he said he’s making enough renting out his spot near St-Jacques and Guy to cover its monthly cost.
“I leave here for work at 9:00 a.m. and come back at 5:00,” he said. “When I go out of town, I rent my spot and on weekends it gets good traction because there’s games and concerts.”
Dada said he’s not concerned about meeting the same fate as taxi app Uber, which has been subject to protests from cabbies.
“Unlike Uber, we’re not taking income from anyone else,” he said. “We’re adding parking spots where it’s badly needed and that’s why the parking authority is supporting us, because meters can’t be everywhere.”
CityParking is already facing competition. AreaParking is a similar app and that the market can ostensibly support both is a testament to how bad Montreal’s parking problem is.
“Forty per cent of traffic is caused by people looking for parking spots, so we’re at a point where technology is trying to solve the traffic problem,” said AreaParking founder Daniel Tadros.
