Archive for the ‘Drive less or car share’ Category

Taking 100,000 cars off the road

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

40,000 people drive to work, by themselves, each day, in Auckland leaving behind 1.2 million empty seats!  Paul Minett of the Ridesharing Institute, a non for profit aimed at raising awareness of other ways of moving about a congested city, explains ridesharing and the difference it could make to Auckland roads  in a press release today.

If a few of these people became a passenger one day in four,  100,000 cars would be taken off our roads. Maybe then we wouldn’t any more roads or bridges? There are other benefits from ridesharing too!

Why wouldn’t we look at some of these low cost options, like ridesharing and carsharing, before we increased GST, rates and other taxes?

Read more http://www.ridesharinginstitute.org/sites/default/files/Ridesharing%20Institute%20News%20Release%202012%2002%2015%20final.pdf

Carshare and bikes

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Go Get, Australia’s largest carshare company had a neat story in their latest newsletter.

The City of Sydney is helping to make carsharing even more convenient, by adding bicycle parking rings to some of the sign poles next to carshare pods.

So if you need to cycle to a  car that might be a little far to walk – say you want a car to shoot out shopping- you can lock up your bike while you drive out there.

You can then drop your new flatpacks, rugs, scented candles, and ergonomic pillows at home, and then return the car back to its pod, before cycling back home!

We’ve sent the idea to Auckland Council, so hopefully the new onstreet car park signs might have a bike ring! Did you see the brightly painted carshare space! COOL

 

Fewer cars drive over Harbour Bridge

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

Auckland has fewer cars driving over the Harbour Bridge and this is put down to higher fuel costs and better public transport.

A recent report shows  almost 900 fewer cars a week travelled over the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 2011 compared with 2010.

NZTA figures show 1,684,601 cars crossed the bridge in the year to December, 44,545 fewer than in 2010.

Figures provided by New Zealand-owned petrol retailer Gull from local authority levies on petrol sales in the Auckland region showed 19 million fewer litres of petrol were sold in the year to June 2011 - a two per cent drop on the previous year.

And Auckland Transport Authority figures show there were 68,590,762 passenger trips on buses, trains and ferries for the 12 months to October 2011 – an increase of 6,033,457 or a 9.6 per cent rise for the year.

“That’s good news for those who want to make the city more liveable,” says Victoria Carter, co-founder of Cityhop carshare, fewer cars mean less emissions, cleaner air and waterways, and most importantly safer streets for those who walk or bike.

“All the cities in the world that are becoming more liveable are reclaiming their streets and saying the streets have to have fewer cars on them.”

Carsharing makes it much easier for people to deliberately choose not to own a car. Now that Auckland Transport has put cars on street in parts of the city with more to come it really is viable for people to sell their car and use car share when they need wheels.”

Cityhop thanks go to..

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Cityhop has a number of business partners who provide car parks to it. We and our members can’t thank them enough for recognising carshare works! And we thought more people should know about their forward thinking.

Many of the people who have donated a car park to us also use car share. So who are these thoughtful organisations? Maybe you might like to see if your company is interested in having its own carshare car on site? We are always looking for new locations. Give us a call on 374 5081

 First up, Isthmus whose car park is in Sale St. Gavin Lister, a director of Isthmus decided to give up his own private park for car share so he and his team as well as members of the public can carshare instead of owning their own car. Isthmus is  a  New Zealand-based design practice with an international profile in executing award-winning landscape architecture, urban design and landscape planning.

 Massey University was next. Their SHORE and Whariki units which are based at Massey University House at 90 Symonds St  house a team of twenty to thirty social science researchers who use car share to move about. We think this university shows that they really are at the leading edge of learning and new ways of doing things!

Wilson Parking have provided our Garret St car park and soon this will be another Wellington location nearby. This is an important park for Cityhop because this and the previous Customs Street car park are open air and very visible. One of the challenges for carshare in New Zealand is that we are usually in car parks. People who use buses trains or walk don’t see us and don’t know there is an alternative to car ownership. So being on-street or in an open air car park and sitting practically on the pavement is important visibility for us. Thank you Wilson Parking.

Last month, Cooper & Co who are responsible for the new attractive developments at Britomart and the rejuvenation of the Britomart area have got behind car share with a car park in their new car park.

And of course, Auckland Transport has recently given cityhop 10 onstreet car park spaces.

Thank you supporters.

Carshare goes on street

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Thanks to Auckland Council and Auckland Transport, Cityhop today unveiled three onstreet car park spaces so Auckland City residents can now see how easy it is to live without a car. If you live near Hobson St, College Hill or Williamson Ave in Ponsonby, living without a car just got a whole lot easier. Says Victoria Carter, Co-founder, “we are thrilled to have a partnership with Auckland Transport, we have always believed we are part of a successful public transport mix with trains, buses, ferries, walking and biking. The reality is sometimes you need a car!”

Yes, for just $15 an hour including the FUEL, you can have access to smart eco-friendly wheels. See one of these links below and find out more about why, how and what is car share!

There has been quite a bit of press as a result!

NZ Herald thanks to Mathew Dearnaley 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10771168

Kiwi FM with Glenn Williams, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9GYKeOMjMM&list=UUgbm5in2RkVoXR4GsMSZ81A&feature=plcp&context=C242c2FDOEgsToPDskJk-fepgRc37z4zIkoXujc9

TV 3  http://www.3news.co.nz/New-car-sharing-scheme-hits-the-streets/tabid/423/articleID/235653/Default.aspx#top

Morning Report interviewed Sharon Hunter from Auckland Transport.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2504261/auckland-transport-launches-trial-to-encourage-car-sharing.asx

More to come!

Cityhop wins SBN Design & Innovation

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

Cityhop won the Sustainable Business Network’s Design & Innovation award last Tuesday. Thank you Pure Advantage and SBN. Sustainable Showcase, last Wednesday was an all day exhibition of samazing ways to be more sustainable at Shed 10 Queens Wharf. There are so many sustainable ways for us all to do better and greener!

On winning, Victoria Carter, CEO and Co-founder said, “This award is for all our members. Without them we wouldn’t be here. In particular thank you to EECA, Isthmus, AUT and Aecom, all the individuals who believe it is good to not own a car, that it is good to drive less and who make Auckland a more liveable city.

HungryBins won the Judges Highly Commended prize. Cool worm farm we will write more about in another blog.

 

See sustainable.org.nz  for more. 

 

Sustainable Network showcase

Monday, November 7th, 2011

The Sustainable Business Network has its first ever showcase on Wednesday  9 November. It’s a free public event  to highlight the many eco-friendly and sustainable choices business and individuals have to improve the way we live.

Cityhop will have a car on display to show people how easy it is to carshare and why they might like to consider it.

Come and meet  New Zealand businesses, government, community and non-profits leading the way towards a collective sustainable future.

When: Free public open day on 9th November

Where: Shed 10, Queens Wharf, Auckland

See  a 2 day celebration of sustainable business, technology, innovation and lifestyles. Spend a day in the life of our sustainable city, network, connect and learn from New Zealand’s sustainable champions and social innovators.

NZ on world carshare map!

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Collaborative consumption have produced a cool carsharing website. Yep, we might be right at the end of the world carshare map, but Cityhop is there! Right next door to the picture of one kangaroo are half a dozen sheep. Not sure we get the significance of the UFO beaming up the sheep though!

Check it out, all the interesting statistics and important numbers on carshare!  http://futureofcarsharing.com/

Sustainable finalist

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

What a great way to start the week! Cityhop has got an email from the Sustainable 60 awards advising we are a finalist in the Marketplace and Small Business category.

Run by Fairfax Media and PwC the awards showcase sustainable business practice in NZ.

Says Unlimited Editor, Mark Revington, This is the third year for the awards, this year’s finalists know that sustainability isn’t an add-on or achieved by an annual tree-planting day. This is about sustainability across the board not an energy audit.”

 Says Victoria Carter, Cityhop co-founder, “We are so pleased. We were established on the premis of making it easier for others to be more sustainable. Virtually everything we do considers what is the best way of doing this. Only last week we did a video conference on ‘what is car share’ to a dozen Wellington larger employers and government departments instead of getting on a plane and presenting!”

The Sustainable 60 Awards finalists are:

  Strategy and Governance: Anguillid Consulting, Auckland Airport, Beca, BNZ, Soar Printing

 Marketplace: Anguillid Consulting, Auckland Airport, Beca, Cityhop, Jasmax, LanzaTech,Ziptrek Ecotours

 Workplace: Auckland Airport, Beca, BNZ, NZ Sugar Company, OMEGA, Soar Printing

 Environment: 3R Group, All Good Organics, Antarctica NZ, Auckland Airport, Beca, Soar Printing

 Community: 3R Group, Anguillid Consulting, Auckland Airport, BNZ, Mana Recovery Incorporated, Meridian Energy

 Overall – Small Business: Anguillid Consulting, OMEGA, City Hop, Clean Planet

 Overall – Medium Business: 3R, Soar Printing

Overall – Large Business: Auckland Airport, Beca, BNZ, NZ Sugar Company

The winners will be announced on November 30 2011.

Sharing – the new trend

Monday, August 1st, 2011

 

Colloborative consumption is the fancy word for sharing! It’s what neighbours did in our great grandparents day. It’s what Cantabrians have been doing successfully  as a result of the earthquake.

As we have become more of a consumer society we’ve tended to buy all the gadgets we might need once a year and store them without thinking of asking our neighbour would they let us borrow theirs.

I know I’m guilty of it after I saw my neighbour use his water blaster I used my frequent shopper points to get one myself and I’m sure if I had asked I could have borrowed his.

Northern Western University profiles Chuck Templeton, founder of the new website, ohsowe.com in Chicago encourages  bartering, trading and sharing goods and services in local communities by bringing people into contact with neighbors who have what they need and live close by.

Chuck points out there are 60,000 drills in homes throughout the US used on average for 4 minutes every year. If we shared, he says, we wouldn’t need to manufacture the vast quantities still being made, we just need to provide access.  We could move from needing to own to sharing. (wow what an idea!)

Roo Rogers who wrote “What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live,” says,”Collaborative consumption is basically a very old, traditional behavior that has been put on steroids today and allows for mass coordination and efficiency.”

“In this analogy, steroids represent the Internet, a highly efficient tool for linking people to one another on a small-scale, neighborhood level. Websites such as ohsowe.com and others like it allow people to network in ways that haven’t been possible until quite recently. For instance, swap.com, a forum that allows users to trade their old goods for second-hand stuff they want

Even less tech-heavy models, such as car-sharing operations, wouldn’t have seemed so feasible several years ago.

Cityhop is NZ’s only car share company providing customers with shared, fuel efficient alternatives to car ownership. It takes an expensive individual asset and makes it available to lots of people via a membership scheme.

Many people can’t imagine not owning a car. Read here, how easy it is.

Kathy Harget of Baltimore went car-free  to have a “low-carbon life” that includes shopping at public markets for locally produced foods. She said about 75 percent of her local travel is by bike — For other trips, she takes the bus and uses a Zipcar two or three times a month.

Harget also has been saving a bundle on car payments, insurance, parking fees and maintenance. She tracked transportation costs rigorously for her first six months without a car and found that her spending had been cut by 50 percent

This sharing thing might just catch on.