Following on from the popularity of the system overseas and interstate, the City of Fremantle last week agreed to the trial which, if successful, could result in a fleet of up to 50 shared vehicles by 2020.
Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said it would tie in well with the City’s sustainability aims as well as work alongside its plans to increase public transport and bicycle usage in the area.
‘As part of our One Planet Fremantle program, we’ve been doing a lot of creative thinking about how to provide Fremantle residents with access to sustainable transport options,’ he said.
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READ NOW‘For a city like Fremantle, with such an active sustainability community, we see this as a great opportunity to provide new transport options to enable a shift away from the ‘car driven city’. We intend to start small, allocating only a few parking bays to start with, and to support the system to grow organically over time as demand grows.’
Tristan Sender, chief executive of GoGet CarShare, which runs 1400 cars out of Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, said car sharing was becoming very popular because of benefits like not having to pay for petrol, insurance or maintenance.
‘Urban dwellers in particular are recognising that they simply don’t need to own a car to have the lifestyle they want, and even those who do need to own a car are freed from needing that second car as long as there is dependable car share in the area,’ he said.
‘I think it’s just a matter of time before it takes off in WA; the right ingredients are there.
‘For car sharing to work best, you will want sufficient cars in the right on-street locations to optimise convenience and for the council to promote this service to the community.
‘It would also be great to see councils actively use car sharing instead of their own fleets as a way to reduce their costs.’