Car Sharing is Caring

Car Sharing


To continue on my quest for alternatives to driving a car, I have found another source in car sharing.

Car sharing is a very broad term for what is essentially not owning a car, but having access to a
'group share' or 'community' car where you pay as you go and when you need.





You book or sign up for a car and then collect that car from a on-street site or at a designated area.

What is interesting is that the City of Sydney Council has a number of car sharing schemes, including Hertz 24/7, GoGet and GreenShareCar.

They have around 20,000 users signed up for their services, which is a number that is growing.

So why would people car share? What are the benefits? And how does it help the environment?

There are actually quite a large number of benefits associated with the concept of Car Sharing, and these include:

Benefits

• Lower costs, due to less fuel, registration and maintenance costs for cars 
• Less cars on the road, as fewer people own cars (City of Sydney estimate one share-car takes between 10 to 20 cars off the road and the street)
• The cars that are being used are more fuel efficient, newer and have less of an environmental impact 
• Allows senior citizens and lower socio-economic people to have access to cars and driving 
• More space for street parking or for other uses of roads

After reading the City of Sydney discussion paper and its variety of services, it became quite clear that this is a very good initiative for inner city residents. It means that there are more areas to park your car in, it takes cars off the street and means you only use a car when you really need it. 

However, the negatives associated with car sharing are that it has the potential to make booking a car a long process (unless it is all done on a Smartphone App, which is probably the case), and as soon as you move out into the outer suburbs into more rural areas, it becomes less useful.

Yet it is perfect for the inner city, which is backed up by these statistics from the City of Sydney website, which show that car sharing is quite regularly used as a means of alternative transport, comparative to other forms of transport.






So while I still don't really know a lot about car sharing (or have ever used it), it does appear to be a very good idea, and when implemented properly, could provide a long-term solution to Sydney's congestion issues.


To further update my knowledge on this subject, I want to specifically look at a company in America that has provided a very interesting car sharing service, called Bridj. It is similar to Uber, but provides a cheap, mass transport system.


To check out the City of Sydney and other car sharing info, have a look here:

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/live/residents/car-sharing

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/109099/CarSharingPolicy.pdf

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/122502/CarShareEconomicAppraisalFINALREPORT.pdf

http://www.nationaljournal.com/policy/insiders/transportation/commuting-soothsayers-look-for-alternatives-to-driving-20141027