Car-sharing in Sydney on the increase

The SMH has an article on the growth of car sharing in inner city Sydney - Families give the green light to car-sharing.

The use of car share is growing at about 230 members a month. The total recently passed 14,000. GreenShareCar and Flexicar also provide a service.

''We've been pleasantly surprised by the uptake from families with kids and from people who had two cars but downsized to one and are using us as their second,'' Mr Jeffreys said. The financial crisis had '' accelerated the trends ''because it's made people think really hard about whether they really need a private car''.

In response to criticism that the scheme takes up public parking spots for private profit, Mr Jeffreys said ''obviously people see the car-share spaces, but behind that one GoGet car there are 20-25 people using it, and they don't see the cars that have effectively disappeared''.

The City of Sydney has provided 280 car-share parking spots. For each one the companies pay for a residential parking permit, and since July a $400 fee for signs and road markings.

The council has backed car-share schemes as a way of easing congestion, and estimates car-share has so far replaced 700 private cars in the area. The council is keen to double membership from 7500 to 15,000 car-share users, or one in 10 city households, by 2016.