Car Sharing in Cork City
Posted on March 22, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Motor Cars.
Got an email from Cork GreenMap telling me about a new feasibility study that Cork City Council are doing in the area of Car Sharing.
Cork City Council is considering the feasibility of the setting up of a car-sharing service – also called “car club” in the UK – in Cork City:
http://www.corkcorp.ie/ourservices/roads/carsharing.shtml
What is car-sharing?
Car-sharing in urban areas is a cost-effective alternative to owning your own car. It allows people access to a car when they need it, from a place near their home or workplace. The car can be used for short trips lasting as little as an hour or booked for a few days. You only pay for the hours you keep the car and the distance you drive. NB: the term “car-sharing” is also used to designate the sharing of a ride.Who can be members of a car-sharing club?
Members of a car club can be both individuals who don’t need a car on a daily basis and companies/organisations looking for mobility solutions to tackle parking, traffic or car-pooling issues on their site in Cork City.What are the advantages of car-sharing?
The advantages of car-sharing are numerous:
- Affordable: just pay for the time the car is in use and the distance driven
- Reserved parking: cars are conveniently located in reserved places close to where you live or work
- Flexible: book a car for as little as an hour, on-line or calling a booking centre
- Easy to use: after registration you just book it, jump in the car and drive away
- Planet-friendly: car-sharing globally reduces parking pressure and car use, helping to combat pollution and climate change
Tell us what you think!
A feasibility study is being carried out on behalf of Cork City Council and a public consultation stage is now on track to assess the potential market of such a service as well as to define the best locations of a car club in the city centre.
If a car-sharing scheme is of any interest for you please take part in our on-line survey:
http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB2267Q9ECZ6EClick on the following link for leaflets about the car-sharing project as well as a tool to calculate your car costs:
http://www.corkcorp.ie/ourservices/roads/carsharing.shtml
Also don’t hesitate to get in touch with Traffic Division to get more information or to give your opinion:
Noel Tummon, Traffic Division, Cork City Council
VHI Buildings, 70 South Mall, Cork
Tel: 021 492 4452
E-mail: traffic@corkcity.ie
Looks like Cork is turning into the San Fran of Ireland in more ways than one! I hope this idea takes off.
9 Replies to "Car Sharing in Cork City"
Will on March 22, 2007
Sorry, but a survey which requires full contact details at the start is one which is not going to get filled in…
conor on March 22, 2007
Haven’t done it yet, are they mandatory?
Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » Fluffy Links - March 23rd 2007 on March 23, 2007
[...] Car sharing in Cork. Give feedback? [...]
Babs on April 6, 2007
Having lived in City Centre Cork, I know how hard it is to park to do some shopping. I am not sure if this idea will help open up spots in Cork as the population continues to grow at a fast pace. What I find most important to the region is to improve the quality of the current roads to ease congestion. There are way to many black spots for my liking.
Michael Newham on December 13, 2007
Our company ‘Mendes - GoCar’ will be providing the car-sharing service in Cork City Centre. We hope to have it operational by May the 1st 2008.
Please see the Wikipedia article for a good overview of what Car-Sharing is about - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_sharing
All our ‘GoCars’ will have dedicated parking spaces ‘GoBases’ near high residential and business nodes of population.
Research has shown that in a successful car-sharing business each car added to a car sharing fleet replaces 8 to 12 private vehicles; thus reducing Co2 emmissions and congestion.
Another benefit to joining a car-sharing service is the increased use of public transport as well as walking and cycling.
We hope to have our website http://www.gocar.ie live by mid January. It will just be a brochure based site to begin with where ye can leave contact details to find out about membership and so forth.
Regards,
Mike N.
conor on December 13, 2007
That’s fantastic news Michael. I’ll do a blog post on it.
Nicki on December 13, 2007
I’m really looking forward to seeing how this works out.
I have a lovely car, a great big diesel boat of a yoke that my Mum passed down to me. I know I could never afford such a nice car but it’s ridiculous, tax is nearly 600 quid a year but I only use it about once every three weeks. If I’m going to Dublin I usually take the train rather than suffer that miserable journey up… I live in the city and haven’t got a resident’s parking permit - all a right pain.
So recently I set up my own car-sharing pool! I split the cost of insurance down the middle with a mate, he has it most of the time (and has parking) and whenever I need it he drops it in to me.
I’ll still be interested in the GoCar crowd though - if it works out cheaper and they have a car or two that’ll fit a double bass I wouldn’t mind being spared the liability of my own car….
Car Blog on February 8, 2008
Car sharing is great for all concerned, company on your travels and reduced costs
opel » Late breaking news on March 22, 2007
[...] <b>Car</b> Sharing in Cork City [...]