Australian carshare company GoGet is making a valuable contribution to tackling congestion in the country’s major cities by reducing private car use and freeing up parking space.
Speaking exclusively to Traffic Technology Today, GoGet’s general manager for Victoria and South Australia, Justin Passaportis (below), reveals some of the most impressive recent statistics surrounding carshare in Australia.
“We estimate that we’ve freed up more than 55km [35 miles] of parking space in Australia to date through the service, which is clearly having a profound impact on congestion and the flow of traffic in the inner city,” says Passaportis. “For each car shared through the service, up to 10 other privately held cars are removed from the roads.”
“We’ve seen local government in Australia re-commit to carsharing by reviewing and updating their policies over the last 18 months. The City of Melbourne, for example, is now targeting that 30% of households will carshare by 2021. Interestingly, 15% of Sydney’s population that has a driver’s licence is a member of a carshare scheme.”
Passaportis is now looking forward to the ITS World Congress, which is to be held in his home city of Melbourne this year (October 10-14), and he promises that GoGet will be making a significant contribution, both in showcasing existing schemes and looking toward a self-driving future.
“We believe carshare is an integral part of the self-driving revolution because it has started the cultural shift that is seeing people transition from owned vehicles into shared vehicles,” he says.
“This is critical because almost everyone thinking about self-driving vehicles today believes that they will not be privately owned but shared.
“GoGet is innovating through autonomous vehicle research and we are readying carshare for the next step – the transition to driverless technology. Intermodal transport will likely become more common in the future, autonomous vehicles will have a positive effect on congestion, and the efficiency of trips will be optimized. We’re looking forward to having more green spaces where parking lots once were.”
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Photographs: Matthew Turner
