Go Get car share for Central Park inner city residents
Car sharing club GoGet has partnered to provide up to 44 car share vehicles in the $2 billion Central Park complex on Broadway in Sydney.
The joint-venture developers, Frasers Property and Sekisui House, have sensed the global trend with the newest batch of inner city residents re-assessing the way they integrate personal vehicles and public transport into their lives.
Vehicles, including hatchbacks, wagons, vans, utes, Yaris, Audis and 8-seater people movers will be available at Central Park.
Frasers Property Australia CEO Guy Pahor welcomed Australia’s largest GoGet SuperPod with cars available to the 1,000 plus residents, along with Chippendale locals.
Frasers Property has been a longtime supporter of the carpooling initiative, having introduced a 10 car share pod at its Trio development in Camperdown in 2009.
“The considerable environmental benefits that the GoGet car share scheme brings, through less congestion on the roads and less car trips, contribute to the world-leading sustainability agenda of Central Park.”
He noted that buyers are driven by price points, with investors deciding sometimes that a car space does not add more to the value of the apartment.
“What drives the value of the apartments is the social and physical infrastructure within walking distance from Central Park.”
The cost of a car space in Central Park is about $75,000.
GoGet co-founder Bruce Jeffreys says the largest cluster of car share vehicles in Australia, allowed motorists to select a car to fit their mood or errand.
When completed, Central Park, at Broadway, at the south of the city, will have 2,200 apartments and more than 5,000 residents.
Not all apartments will have parking spaces, with around half currently having a space allocated to their unit.
“Increasing numbers of urban dwellers are living in the city without a car,” GoGet chief executive Tristan Sender said.
This reflected a drop in car ownership and an increase in car sharing among Sydney residents.
With enthusiasm from Clover Moore's town hall, the city saw around a 20% increase in car share spaces in the past year to 589 on-street parking spaces for car-sharing services, up from 489 spaces in April 2013. The City of Sydney aims to have 10% of all households using car sharing programs by 2016.
GoGet allows consumers to book a car by the hour, with costs ranging from around $6.35 to $9.90 an hour. The company has more than 1,300 vehicles in Australia with 1,110 of those in Sydney.
GoGet members pay a monthly fee, using the phone or internet to book and then a smartcard to unlock the vehicle.
GoGet was founded seven years ago and now has almost 50,000 members of which 36,000 are in NSW.
An wtart-up called Car Next Door, based at the Fishburners start-up hub in Ultimo, has emerged but does not own the cars in its network. It facilitates neighbourhood car sharing where car owners earn money by renting out their car to members on the network. The owners set a price per hour/day with Car Next Door taking a 25% stake.