Car Share Services in Sydney
What is car sharing?
How does car sharing work?
Where are the shared cars?
What does car sharing do for the environment?
City of Sydney’s role
Find out more
What is car sharing?
- Car sharing is a popular, low-cost, reliable and convenient alternative to car ownership, taxis or car rental.
- Car share schemes provide a network of vehicles in both on-street and off-street parking spots which can be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Members book vehicles for short periods of time, from one hour to a few days.
- Car share schemes now operate in over 600 cities worldwide and are becoming increasingly popular.
- Car sharing offers the freedom of having a car without the hassles of ownership such as maintenance, insurance and repairs.
How does car sharing work?
- Residents can join one of three privately-operated car share schemes in the City of Sydney: Charter Drive, Flexicar and GoGet.
- Cars can be reserved online or over the phone, for use at any time of day or night.
- The car share member simply collects the car at the reserved time from the dedicated parking space, and later returns the car to the same space.
- The City is creating dedicated car share parking spaces in a variety of locations, including Kings Cross, Millers Point, Pyrmont, Glebe, Woolloomooloo, Waterloo, Zetland, Darlington, Darlinghurst, Ultimo, Erskineville, Redfern, Surry Hills, Newtown, Chippendale and East Sydney.
- The cost depends on time and distance, frequency of use, and the rates charged by each operator.
- Costs associated with fuel, vehicle maintenance and insurance are usually included in the operator’s hire fees.
Where are the shared cars?
The City is working to ensure that car share spaces are convenient for residents. More than 20 on-street spaces have been created, and many more are planned. As new spaces are created, the information on this page will be updated.
Download
- Map of car share bays | PDF 976Kb
What does car sharing do for the environment?
- In Australia, cars contributed over 41 million tonnes of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere in 2004. These gases contribute to climate change and represent over seven per cent of total national emissions.
- Research has shown that members of car share schemes are more likely to walk, use a bicycle, or catch public transport compared to those who own a car.
- One car share vehicle can reduce demand for parking in the City by replacing up to ten privately-owned vehicles parked and travelling on our roads.
- More car sharing will mean less demand for limited parking space, less congestion and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
City of Sydney’s role
- The City is trialling dedicated car share parking spaces at on-street and off-street locations.
- The trial will make these spaces available to selected car share operators. It will help address parking problems, provide low cost alternatives to residents who use a car only occasionally, and support more sustainable transport.
- Dedicated parking spaces allow car share members to easily find the car they have reserved, and to return it after use.
- Parking spaces will be chosen to provide the most benefit to the community while minimising the impact on adjacent areas.
- Your views are important to us. After consultation with residents and businesses, the City has approved 12 dedicated on-street spaces. The City will continue to consult before making a decision on other proposed locations.
- The City of Sydney selected three car share operators through an open Expression of Interest (EOI). The City’s agreement with the operators sets minimum quality requirements, including excellent environmental performance of vehicles, high availability and ease of booking. The City will regularly monitor the performance and popularity of the car share services. Further information is available in this report to Council.
Find out more
For more information on joining a car share scheme visit:
- Charter Drive www.charterdrive.com.au
- Flexicar www.flexicar.com.au
- GoGet www.goget.com.au
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