Go-Get Car Sharing

From the Urban Ecology Australia newsletter, March 2010

'The GoGet/Urban Ecology Australia joint initiative began in August 2008 with 2 Toyota Yaris’ strategically sited in ‘pods’ in Sturt Street outside Christie Walk.

In the last 18 months memberships have doubled, the Adelaide fleet has increased to 4 (including 1 station wagon). Pods are now also located in Lights View (NE subdivision) and Hutt Street, city.

One of the lesser known effects of the global financial crisis has been a re-evaluation of transport use among families, with a resultant increase in patronage of public transport and an exploration of car share/cycling/walking as options.

Commercial car share has been ‘picked up’ by urban dwellers as a viable cost-effective alternative to owning a second car!

Cars can be booked online or via the phone in hourly ‘blocks’ of time, a special smart card opens the car, an onboard computer records time and kms, until returned to its pod.

Payment is on a monthly basis (for time/kms) without costs of registration, insurance, petrol and maintenance.

Increasingly, developers of apartments in CBD or inner-city areas, are opting to include dedicated car share spaces in their development proposals, because high site costs make it no longer viable to provide one (let alone two) car spaces per unit. Many prospective buyers are electing to ‘value-add’ to the internal features of an apartment, MINUS A CAR SPACE, where there is access to car share.

Councils are responding positively to this trend towards car share quotas within development proposals as a way of reducing congestion and pollution as well as reducing the need for car park infrastructure.

For more information or to join GoGet, go to http://www.goget.com.au