Car Sharing

The primacy of car-based mobility has become a widespread problem in most cities in the world. In Australia, the situation is no different, as the car has an even more dominant role than in European cities. In most of the countries, transport is the fastest growing sector contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from transport are second in magnitude only to the stationary energy sector. Enormous amounts of land and capital are bound up with cars, roads and parking space. This is a result of high levels of private car ownership. Although in medium and high-density urban areas many people walk, cycle and use public transport, there are occasions when they still see a need for some car travel. This is the 'mobility gap' that car sharing seeks to all.


This report describes the concept of car sharing. Its purpose is to identify car sharing organisations in other countries and to examine the preconditions required to establish and run a car sharing organisation (CSO) in order to examine the countries conditions as a basis on which to encourage local initiatives. At an anecdotal level, car sharing is known to exist in a number of cities. For example, approval was granted to a high-rise residential development to operate a car sharing scheme through a local car provider as a substitute for not providing on-site car parking. Other CSOs are small-scale and none is known to be linked formally to public transport providers.

Car sharing is one of a number of mobility strategies, which solves some car ownership problems and problems associated with high car-reliance.

In the primary layer, individuals gain the benefits of private cars without the costs and responsibilities of ownership. Specifically, car sharing allows a member (such as a household or business) to access a meet of shared cars and other types of motor vehicles as needed, paying a usage fee each time. This removes high fixed costs such as registration and third-party insurance, as most costs become both variable and lower. Vehicles are available to members more or less as required for any length of time (from one hour, up to several weeks or more) and at many points (dozens of locations in a city or even in other cities). So, instead of buying a car, people and/or companies, share a meet of vehicles with usage costs dependent on the kilometres travelled and the period of time for which the vehicle is booked. In the second layer, car sharing helps the community reduce the number of trips and distances travelled by private cars. In the third layer, urban communities gain space for productive uses when space currently occupied by roads and parking is not expanded and communities also experience less air and noise pollution.


Car sharing should not be confused with car pooling, which is more accurately termed 'ride-sharing'. In car pooling, owners of cars provide rides to other passengers in a more or less organised way, on a regular or irregular basis. It requires mutual agreement and trust and is generally not suitable for organising as a for-profit business.

The opportunity remains, however, to systematically develop appropriate indicators and an agreed methodology to compare different car sharing schemes.

Some potential indicators include:

• number of vehicles/members (total members)
• reduction in private motor vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT)
• CO2 emissions reduced
• number of cars replaced
• increase in public transport use
• increased time walking and cycling
• area/kerbside distance of parking saved with opportunity for improved re-use, e.g. as dedicated cycleway, parkland and/or open space
• more affordable housing or other savings in developments, e.g. saving space and costs of parking and improving amenity.

Benefits to individuals involved in car sharing :

The following are some of the key reasons individuals may choose to be involved in a car sharing organisation:

• Economic : significant reduction of costs as opposed to owning a motor vehicle, including no need for private parking space and the opportunity to redeploy household expenditure that would typically have been devoted to the sunk costs associated with motor vehicle ownership.
• Convenience : no administrative effort or time expenditure on insurance, purchase and sale, repairs, permits etc.
• Improved access: enhanced mobility options, including access to multiple types of vehicle resulting in a choice of the most economically sensible transport mode.