To best those traffic congestion blues Aucklanders may need to make sacrifices, even extending to vehicle ownership, Oscar Ellison from car sharing company, YourDrive, claims.
“It is estimated that most consumers only use their vehicles about four percent of the time and yet we carry the fixed and variable overheads of vehicle ownership,” he says. “The sector is evolving constantly, driven by advancements in self-driving vehicles and as more of this technology is introduced, we will see far fewer of us with the need to own a car.”
Since setting up shop in New Zealand three years ago, YourDrive has more than 10,000 registered users, with most springing from high urban density such as Auckland and Wellington, Mr Ellison reports. He expects the value of the car sharing industry worldwide to reach $15.7 billion within the next six years.
Although car sharing may reduce congestion and the need for parking infrastructure, it is not necessarily an outright replacement for vehicle ownership.
“For Aucklanders to divorce themselves completely from car ownership we need to help them understand that public transport is really a multi-modal concept,” Mr Ellison adds. “In practice this means you might take the train or bus to work, then take an Uber to an evening event – but for a weekend away you would turn to car sharing.”