Fremantle to decide on trial for car sharing
Perth's willingness to embrace the popular concept of car sharing will soon be tested, with a two-year trial to offer access to cars without having to own them.
Car-sharing schemes are common overseas and in Sydney and Melbourne, but the idea is yet to take off in WA. If the trial is approved by the City of Fremantle tomorrow night, it will be the first of its kind and scale in WA.
Under the scheme, modelled on one operating in Sydney, customers would pay a fee to use a fleet of about 50 cars that could be picked up from and dropped off at various locations.
Users would be charged based on how long they hired the car and how far it travelled.
Fremantle has proposed the trial but the service would be open to anyone in Perth.
Mayor Brad Pettitt said he believed Perth was ready to embrace car sharing but it would take time to change habits.
"Public transport's getting better, we're getting better with riding bikes and this is one more ingredient," he said.
"I think it will have a slow build because it's very different to what we've done in the past."
