Dozens of Evo ride shares draw complaints in East Vancouver

Residents and businesses in an East Vancouver neighbourhood say there are too many Evos parked on their street, all waiting for repairs.

On Triumph Street in East Vancouver, dozens of damaged cars belonging to Evo Car Share are waiting for repairs at an auto shop.

It’s perfectly legal for the broken vehicles to sit in the free parking areas around this block, but some neighbouring businesses say they’re finding them to be a nuisance.

“Showing up to work and you have two vans about to load in and there’s 18 crashed Evos in front of your studio is pretty annoying,” said Mariessa McLeoud, an audio engineer in the neighbourhood. “Maybe they should try to rent a lot somewhere if they’re Evo and they have enough money.”

“Obviously the cars have to get fixed. But it would make more sense if they had a better situation set up so it doesn’t impede on everyone in the neighbourhood.” said a musician outside a neighbouring studio.

This isn’t the only auto shop in the neighbourhood that works on Evos. One of the shop owners in the area told CityNews there are a lot of damaged Evos needing parts, which are taking a long time to arrive because of supply chain issues.

Peter Woodsworth lives right beside this autoshop and says he’s talked to the owner about the issue.

“Airbags, which are a typical product that he needs, are very difficult to get, so the cars sit around a lot longer than they normally do in more stable economic times. I feel the problem is being passed onto him and the problem is Evos,” Woodsworth explained.

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In a statement, Evo senior manager of business operations Dave Wharf says “the neighbourhood around Powell and Triumph has a high concentration of Evo users … there may be times when there are more cars than normal parked around the repair shops as they wait for repairs…. In terms of Evos, I can confirm that the Evos move back into the greater home zone fairly quickly.”

When CityNews asked neighbours for a solution, they all had the same answer.

“Maybe they should try to rent a lot somewhere if they’re Evo and they have enough money,” McLeoud suggested.

“The simple solution is that Evo rents a parking lot somewhere,” said Woodsworth.