By Jessica Godsell, CBC News, February 10, 2020 (p.s. this may be Montreal but her comments can apply anywhere)
I grew up in the Eastern Townships. The only way to get around was by car, so I got my learner's permit as soon as I was eligible and drove my parents' spare car everywhere until I was able to buy my own.
It's safe to say I was thoroughly entrenched in the car-ownership lifestyle. But when I moved to Verdun two years ago, the equation changed. Drastically.
Parking was no longer plentiful — if I did have to drive, that meant planning my day to make sure I didn't have to circle the block for half an hour looking for parking when I returned home. Even if I wasn't taking the car, I had to start it and go for a drive every week because of street cleaning. And I had nowhere to plug in my block heater.One day I was driving with my partner out to visit their family in the West Island. We were stuck in traffic on the Décarie (of course!) and I had the sudden realization that I had just spent 45 minutes shovelling my car out from under a snowbank, and now I was sitting in traffic. It would have been faster (and cheaper!) to take public transit.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/how-to-go-car-free-montreal-1.5453928