Don’t leave your car in the middle of the road, Evo urges

Tuesday’s snowstorm in Metro Vancouver saw many people abandoning vehicles after they got stuck.

The storm brought many roadways to a standstill, with crashes and stalls blocking routes throughout Metro Vancouver.

Several cars belonging to Evo were also left in the middle of various roads.

“You can end your trip at any time as long as it’s in the home zone. So if a member isn’t feeling comfortable to drive or feels that that car is stuck, we would hope that they would do their best to park the vehicle as close to the side as possible, depending on what snow banks look like and how treacherous it is on the sides of the roads,” explained Dave Wharf, who speaks for the company.

“I know there was one on Twitter this morning that showed it basically in the middle of the road. That’s obviously not what we would advise members to do. In a situation like that we’d want them to try to back up and find a safe and out-of-the-way place for them to park.”

Someone decided “nope,” and just left this evo in the middle of the street on a hill in a snowstorm. #BCStorm pic.twitter.com/9rGCTAEDfa

— meghan_wise (@MeghanWise_) November 30, 2022

He notes if you leave a vehicle in a place and it gets towed, you will likely be on the hook for the cost.

“Any vehicles that are just left blatantly in the middle of the road and kind of look like they didn’t even try, we will follow up with those members. So we’ll let them know it will be towed, they will be receiving a fine, and we’ll also try to use it as an educational piece as well too, let them know what they can do next time if they find themselves in that situation.”

In total, Wharf says about eight vehicles were abandoned in the snow. He says while that’s not bad considering the circumstances, some of the vehicles will need repairs.

“The only major issue we had was we, unfortunately, had a tree fall on one of our vehicles. Luckily there was no member in it, it was just parked. So we just have to kind of clean that up today,” he told CityNews.

“I think a lot of people understand our vehicles … don’t have snow tires. They have mud-and-snow-rated tires, so that was good. We had zero accidents.”

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Wharf says Evo received many calls from members asking for information about road conditions and parking.

However, overall, he says many of the car share’s members have been around for several years, adding they mostly know what their limits are.

Evo operates a fleet of Toyota Prius Hybrids and electric vehicles across the region. The car share was created by BCAA.