Today I came across this kewl little website, www.letscarpool.govt.nz. Basically it is an initiative from the Greater Wellington Regional Council, through it's transport authority Metlink, allowing people to register and locate people with whom they can join in a car pool. 'Car pooling' or 'ride sharing' is a concept you would probably be aware of through movies and TV programmes rather than from first hand experience. However, it is gaining popularity in New Zealand, and even Christchurch, with websites such as www.carpoolnz.org and www.dunedinrideshare.co.nz offering ride share programmes. However it is great to see a local authority getting in behind such a project on an official level, showing great commitment at reducing single occupancy among car commuters.
Ride sharing allows people to pool resources in their daily commute. Four people ride sharing in a car has direct benefits such as saving on fuel etc but also has indirect benefits by reducing the need for expensive roading infrastructure (four people ride sharing could effectively take three additional cars off a road), has environmental benefits and also increases social capital. I would like to see ride sharing officially promoted in Greater Christchurch, particularly in the Waimakariri and Selwyn urban areas. Roading and public transport infrastructure is poor in these areas and do not properly disperse commuters as they approach the city. Reducing the number of cars on the daily commute could help loosen the tight grip of congestion in a number of key areas within the city and is a relatively inexpensive way of doing so. If the Christchurch City Council, Waimakariri and Selwyn District Council's and Ecan are committed to reducing traffic congestion and developing a world class sustainable transport system (as they claim) then ride sharing is a logical step to take in the early days. Hopefully they can follow the good example now being set in Wellington (bloody Wellington with its trolley buses and trains and stuff!).
For those of you at UC who travel some distance check out;
www.sustain.canterbury.ac.nz/transport/carpool_index.shtml
Definitely worth it if your beyond a walk or bike in these troubled financial times. Out.
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First of all apologises fro the long delay in reviewing your blogs Mr Humm.
ReplyDeleteI have always supported the use of car-pooling, however; have always felt dissapointed by the results. I think one of the best trials for this idea is Lincoln University. A large proportion of students and staff live in West Christchurch and and have regular time tables to obey. Even though the University provides priority car-parking, registration at the start of the year, and places a link for the database in a prominient place on their web-site prospective car-pooling consumers still shun enrolling.
Here in London as part of my previous position, was to encourage more work place employees to car-pool. The major concern was flexibility we tryed to overcome this by providing taxis to staff if there sharing partner had to leave for emergency reasons and vice-versa. Still with no success.
One example of car-pooling that has worked succesfully is in Washigton DC in America.
Washington has installed high occupancy lanes (T3) alongs its motorway carriage. People actually hitchhike along the on-ramps and motorists pick up people from the bus stops to allow them to utilise the T3.
Just a few ideas to help further your brainstorming
Cheers Mark and sorry for this late reply. In my opinion car-pooling will always struggle until there is a 'culture' of sorts built around it. I think once you go over the 'tipping point' (i.e when 'X' number of people start to become involved) issues such as flexibility might start to sort themselves out. Your more of an expert on this than me though so let me know what you think about that? I certainly think this 'culture' would have more of a chance with official involvement in car-pooling.
ReplyDeleteI like your example from Washington DC! There has been some talk of increasing the Christchurch Northern Motorway from 4 lanes to six from the Rangiora interchange. Imagine making those extra lanes transit lanes/T3 lanes. Now imagine a cycle way added on each side next to the T3 lane and cycle lock-up facilities every 500m. Then people could bike to a desired point and hitch hike in the T3 lane! A bit of nonsense but interesting!!! Cheers for your comments.