A CONFERENCE and exhibition is being held in Cork today to explore the possibility of a car-sharing scheme or a “car club” being started in the city.
Last week, city councillors approved a feasibility study that concluded that, despite the city’s low density population, a car-sharing scheme could work.
Under the scheme, club members would have ready access to cars without having the expense of buying, insuring and taxing a vehicle.
Club members book a car when they need it, go to a designated parking bay and open the car with a smart card and a PIN number. The car is returned to the bay when the trip is over.
According to the Sustainable Transport Council and managing director of mendes Ltd Graham Lightfoot, the car club is just one part of an “integrated traffic system”.
“An average car is idle 22 hours out of 24 hours. Yet, we pay for them 24 hours a day,” he said.
International studies have shown car club members only drive about two-thirds as much as earlier and that a shared car, through being used more effectively, takes the place of five privately owned cars and as many parking spaces.
Today’s conference at the Imperial Hotel on South Mall is part of European Mobility Week. The city’s highly successful Park and Ride at Black Ash will be free all this week. Black Ash is open to car drivers from 7.30am-7.30pm.
Irish Examiner
Showing posts with label car sharing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car sharing. Show all posts
Monday, 17 September 2007
Sunday, 15 July 2007
City ponders merits of car sharing scheme
A NEW drive to introduce a car sharing scheme in Cork was stepped up a gear yesterday.
A firm of British sustainable transport experts has been drafted in by the city council to demonstrate to key groups how car sharing clubs could dramatically cut traffic levels in the city.
With financial backing from the Department of Transport, the council’s traffic division has asked Richard Armitage Transport Consultancy Ltd and Mendes Ltd to demonstrate the scheme at a major conference in the city in September.
The free event is aimed primarily at managers, policy-makers and professionals involved in transportation.
But a conference organiser said it would also be of interest to developers looking for ways to reduce the amount of car parking required for new city centre residential developments.
“For employers and businesses, the interest lies in the way that a car sharing club can provide cars for use by staff on business, during the working day,” the spokesman said. Companies and organisations interested in supplying services to a car sharing club are welcome.
The findings of the Cork Car Sharing Feasibility Study, which was carried out earlier this year, will be revealed at the event.
Plans for how the scheme could be developed will be discussed.
“There is convincing evidence that car sharing club members use the car less, driving less miles per year than before they joined,” the spokesman said.
“Car clubs also reduce the number of privately owned cars per household, enabling people to avoid the cost of a second car.”
Michael Glotz-Richter, the head of Sustainable Development Urban Environment, in Freie Hansestadt Bremen, Germany, where a car club operates will be among several speakers to address the conference.
Others include Stephan Koch, the Commuter Plan Manager of University College Cork — an institution which has developed park and ride schemes to ease its traffic headaches, and Joe Keane, the development manager with O’Callaghan Properties, one of the county’s busiest development firms.
The conference will be considered within the context of the Cork Area Strategic Plan (CASP) and the delivery of the city’s Integrated Transport Strategy.
It takes place at the Imperial Hotel on Monday September 17 between 2pm and 5pm with an exhibition and Demonstration taking place between 5pm and 7pm.
Places can be booked online at www.ratransport.co.uk/news11.html.
Eoin English
© Irish Examiner
A firm of British sustainable transport experts has been drafted in by the city council to demonstrate to key groups how car sharing clubs could dramatically cut traffic levels in the city.
With financial backing from the Department of Transport, the council’s traffic division has asked Richard Armitage Transport Consultancy Ltd and Mendes Ltd to demonstrate the scheme at a major conference in the city in September.
The free event is aimed primarily at managers, policy-makers and professionals involved in transportation.
But a conference organiser said it would also be of interest to developers looking for ways to reduce the amount of car parking required for new city centre residential developments.
“For employers and businesses, the interest lies in the way that a car sharing club can provide cars for use by staff on business, during the working day,” the spokesman said. Companies and organisations interested in supplying services to a car sharing club are welcome.
The findings of the Cork Car Sharing Feasibility Study, which was carried out earlier this year, will be revealed at the event.
Plans for how the scheme could be developed will be discussed.
“There is convincing evidence that car sharing club members use the car less, driving less miles per year than before they joined,” the spokesman said.
“Car clubs also reduce the number of privately owned cars per household, enabling people to avoid the cost of a second car.”
Michael Glotz-Richter, the head of Sustainable Development Urban Environment, in Freie Hansestadt Bremen, Germany, where a car club operates will be among several speakers to address the conference.
Others include Stephan Koch, the Commuter Plan Manager of University College Cork — an institution which has developed park and ride schemes to ease its traffic headaches, and Joe Keane, the development manager with O’Callaghan Properties, one of the county’s busiest development firms.
The conference will be considered within the context of the Cork Area Strategic Plan (CASP) and the delivery of the city’s Integrated Transport Strategy.
It takes place at the Imperial Hotel on Monday September 17 between 2pm and 5pm with an exhibition and Demonstration taking place between 5pm and 7pm.
Places can be booked online at www.ratransport.co.uk/news11.html.
Eoin English
© Irish Examiner
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