Posts Tagged ‘how to live without a car. cityhop’

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.”

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!

Rush hour in the Netherlands

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Here is an amazing clip from CBS on what rushhour looks like in the Netherlands. I only saw one car!

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-20074094-10391705.html

Excess capacity

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Think about the time cost benefit of your car suggests Victoria Carter, Cityhop’s co-founder.

Apparently the world’s more than 850 million cars and small trucks are parked for between 20 to 22 hours a day. The average American spends 18% of their income running a car that’s parked stationary 95% of time.

When she tweeted this staggering fact, a cityhoppa commented that the figure is probably worse for kiwis, ie they probably use their cars even less than this.

Interesting, how we apply time and cost studies to business but rarely ourselves. And if we were to truly look at our patterns of use with our car versus the actual cost we might seriously want to change how we move about.

For more on this read carshare guru Robin Chase, Lend your car and save the world!

Sharing gets respectable!

Friday, June 17th, 2011

The Guardian had an article by John Elkington about how times may be a-changing and that whereas once people aspired to get a company car or save up for a flasher car these days they are more interested in not owning. ( well in the US, UK and Europe) NZ may have a little way to go.

Elkington noted how we spoke at a conference in Madrid and that “someone from the auto industry noted to a small group of us that what is really spooking them is the fact that young people are beginning to think differently about car ownership.

“Unlike earlier generations, for whom owning a car was a signal of independence, of having arrived, young people these days are showing much less inclination to possess their own car – and, empowered by mobile phones, apps, social networks and start-ups like Go Get, Streetcar, Zipcar, WhipCar and City Car Club, they are increasingly opting for car sharing.

Now there’s a thought!

Cityhop members wins

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Cityhop was chuffed to read that cityhop members Mitchell & Stout Architects were winners with a Waiheke Island house in the Residential Architecture – House category in the 2011 NZ Architecture Awards.

“With its poetically generated arrangement of volumes and room, this house, designed as  retreat from work, offers a range of inventive and enjoyable spatial experiences. It offers a few extraordinary moments: the ‘thinking room’, a double height space for music and contemplation; guest sleeping areas that are reminiscent of Ryokan atchitecture and suggestive of treehuts and a brightly painted yellow main bedroom.”

We love seeing our members do well. David Mitchell and Julie Stout are not only imaginative in the way they create houses for clients but also in the way they move about the city. They recognise that individual car ownership isn’t always necessary and when they and their team need to drive somewhere they carshare with Cityhop.

At what price will we stop driving?

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

 

At what price will we think we can still afford to be a two or three car family?

One theory is that despite petrol edging up over $2.21 a litre car travel is still relatively under-priced and over-consumed in relation to the damage we are doing to the environment. 

It might surprise readers to know most of us have tripled the kilometres we drive in the past 20 years. Maybe only the right kind of pricing can undo the obsession many of us have to drive everywhere?

That’s why car share clubs are taking off around the world. People who only use a car a few times a week yet pay for a smart piece of metal to sit in an expensive garage realise that it makes no sense. They sell their car and use cityhops ecofriendly cars instead!

It’s cheap -only $15 an hour, or $75 for 24 hours.

Says Victoria Carter Cityhop co-founder,”Car share means all the nice things about having a car but none of the bad – like someone else worrying about the maintenance, remembering the Warrant of Fitness, registration, checking the tyres and so on. 

Car share is growing in popularity. In the US, it’s cool to be a Zipster and  Zipcar , which  recently floated very successfully, has over half a million members sharing cars.

Our friends at Go Get have doubled in size to 10,000 members in the past 12 months. Sydney and Mebourne residents get that it makes sense to just use car share occasionally rather than pay the costs of having a car in your driveway!

Maybe it’s time to think about what your really car costs?

Zipcar makes car share ‘hip’ lifestyle choice

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

As investors want more IPOs, Zipcar, the world’s largest car share company has decided to float. What is interesting is that they are offering shares at the upper end of the range. For more on the float read here 

Relay Rides, (a neighbour to neighbour ride share concept) Chief Executive  and Zip car competitor, Shelby Clark says, “Zipcar is part of a larger trend of environmentally conscious consumers who are interested in accessing products but not necessarily owning them,

“It’s about saying, ‘I’m spending too much money, it’s wasteful and I need to find a smarter way to access the things I need,’” Clark said. “Zipcar has taken car sharing from a niche idea to the mainstream. They’ve made it a hip, lifestyle choice for young urban professionals.”

Says, Victoria Carter, cityhop co-founder, “Car share is taking off around the world in any city where congestion is a problem and smart young urban professionals are recognising they don’t need the status symbol of a car in their driveway or basement for taking out once a week to get groceries or visit someone when they can swipe their car on a car share car.”

Wellington, cycling and cityhop

Friday, January 14th, 2011

 

Many cityhoppers are also cyclists. Zipcar research says that people cycle 25 per cent more once they join car share so car clubs encourage cycling.

Liz Springford, a cityhopper in Wellington has written a great blog on the perils of cycling and they are relevant to anyone who bikes in a city. Where is the safe place to cycle she asks? She points out based on the safe zone NZTA promotes the safest place is in the middle of a lane – yes exactly where a car wouldn’t want you unless you are doing the speed limit.

Liz  points out in her blog in Sustainable Wellington Transport:

“Cyclists aren’t all lycra­-clad muscle­-men, and Wellington streets seem to have a lot of uphill where speeds may be closer to 5kph than 50. Wellington streets place cyclists, particularly those going uphill and unable to maintain a high speed, in a difficult position. Do we get off and walk up the footpath, or hold up the traffic?

Same applies to Auckland we thought.

Liz goes on to point out how illogical it is that cars and their owners get special treatment to park on streets which results in the roads not being so safe for cyclists.

She asks, is it time to talk about where private cars can be stored in Wellington? Does it make sense to use 2 metres on each side of the street to store vehicles, when drivers and increasing numbers of cyclists at varying speeds are forced to share the road?

Liz is keen to get car share in the suburbs and is helping Cityhop explore options. She knows from her own personal experience of having kids and not owning a car that it is perfectly possible to live a life without owning a car.