When Communauto launched its Auto-Mobile car sharing service, where you can take a car, drive it and park it at your destination while only paying for the ride time, I was enthusiastic and figured one of the best use cases would be going to the airport – surely, another member would take the car there to go back home, and both would save on a taxi.
This hasn’t happened yet (I’m sure regulation at the airport doesn’t help), but car2go launched something similar a few months ago: you can take a car2go, park it at the Aeroparc lot, and then take the free shuttle to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau (YUL) airport. There’s a $7.50 fee on top of the regular car2go rates to cover for the parking.
I used the service to go to the airport October 12 and it works reasonably well. However, it’s not really door-to-door like a cab would be: you need to get to a car2go (closest one was a 10 minute walk from my apartment at that time), drive it, park it at Aeroparc, and then wait for and take the shuttle to the airport. The cars aren’t super comfortable either.
The ride ended up costing 14,99$ (about 40 minutes of driving) + 1$ safe ride fee + $7.50 Airport parking fee = $23.49 before taxes, which is $27.01 after taxes. Granted, I got lost because of a wrong address in a Gazette article, and I estimate that the ride could have cost $19.20 in the best case scenario, but it’s not particularly cheap for driving yourself to the airport.
Two weeks later, I went to the airport with a UberX in low traffic and managed to get there in 17 minutes, for about $2 more than what I calculated would be the best case scenario with car2go.
From Jean-Talon Market to YUL
| car2go – my experience | car2go – best case scenario | UberX – my experience | |
| Door-to-door time |
60 minutes | 30-35 minutes | 17 minutes |
| Cost | $27.01 | $19.20 | $21.29 |
This is from the Jean-Talon Market area, and your mileage may vary, but my conclusion is that car2go to the airport is not as helpful as I initially expected. I think it’s a good option when
- only one person needs to travel (or two with very limited luggage)
- there’s a car2go available right next door / you’re not in a rush
- there are no UberX’s nearby or Uber has surge pricing in place
Otherwise, my experience is that UberX will be faster (drops you at the airport terminal, with no shuttle to take), more comfortable, and very close in pricing.
If car2go (or Communauto with Auto-Mobile) managed to get parking spots that are within a few minutes walk of the terminals, the situation would be different.
The comparison would also be different for getting back home from the airport, since Uber is not allowed to pick up there, and the comparison would therefore be between car2go and regular taxis, not UberX.
Have you tried riding car2go to YUL? If so, what was your experience? Feel free to post in the comments.