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Uber is great, but the biggest cost is that you need to pay for the services of someone driving for you. I live in Montreal and regularly use http://communauto.com/ They have two services, 1) for ~$2,50/hour + $0,10/km, where you need to make a reservation, you get the car from one specific parking lot and have to return it there. It's useful only if you plan in advance, if you haven't reserved a car for the weekend by Wednesday forget about it. The 2) service though you just swipe your metro card on the panel for an auto-mobile car parked somewhere, drive for $0,30/minute and leave the car anywhere (in some very big zones in the cities). It's exactly like https://www.car2go.com/ except their auto-mobile vehicles (hybrids and electrics) have backseat, so we can go around with kids (whereas you can't with a Smart). I commute by bicycle to work, so we use this only on the weekends. It takes around $7 to go from our place to the center, while public transport would be $5, so it's really great for the convenience and speed. By far it really beats owning a car in Montreal in cost and convenience. Parking space is limited and very expensive ($8 for 2 hours in city center). If you have a car you have also to keep changing parking even if you don't use it because there are very few buildings with garage and they clean the streets at least once or twice a week for the entire year. I've been car-free for over 20 years, it's a huge relief to not have to worry about taxes, maintenance, robbery, etc etc that comes with the responsibility of owning a car. Come self-driving cars, we might have only some very few people that will keep owning their own vehicles due to some nostalgia feeling. |