Car sharing could cut congestion woes

Experts believe reducing the number of motorists driving alone - especially to work - could cut Perth's congestion significantly.

Photographs taken by local amateur transport historian Nicholas Pusenjak show the experts may be on to something.

One photo, taken from the Loftus Street overpass during the midweek afternoon peak last month, shows a high proportion of single- occupancy cars stuck in the Mitchell Freeway jam.

And as they wait, a six-car train carrying about 1200 passengers speeds past.

Single-occupancy vehicles have been a congestion issue in car-dependent Perth for decades.

A survey of cars parked in the CBD in 2010 found about four in five (79 per cent) had a single occupant.

Traffic congestion expert and author Rachel Smith believes reducing this proportion - and introducing carpooling or car-sharing schemes - could be the key to reducing congestion.

She said carpooling would allow drivers and passengers to connect - using websites, phone applications and carpooling agencies - to offer and search for journeys.

"Carpooling could literally halve the number of cars on our roads," Ms Smith said in her recent book Decongestion.

"Our rigidity and inflexibility is preventing us from cutting traffic congestion. For example, some government departments believe it is easier to build a brand new motorway than to provide carpooling schemes.

"Car sharing allows people to access and use a shared car for personal or business use.

"It is an alternative option to owning a car or purchasing a second car.

"The scheme allows members to book a car in the vehicle fleet for a short time, unlock it with a membership card and later return the vehicle at the end of the booking.

"Costs are calculated on time and trip distances. Cars are parked in neighbourhood locations, including in dedicated on-street carparking spaces, in city carparks or off-street parking spaces."

Mr Pusenjak also took a photograph from a similar location (the Oxford Street pedestrian bridge) in 1983.

It shows almost no congestion on the same stretch of Mitchell Freeway during the afternoon peak period.

He said the two photographs, taken at the same time of day 32 years apart, showed that building more roads was not the solution to Perth's congestion woes.

"Even if the Mitchell Freeway corridor was wide enough to accommodate extra lanes, it would only be a matter of time before they, too, became choked," Mr Pusenjak said.

"I wonder how people moving around Perth would be coping now if the 1970s thinking had prevailed and we had no suburban railways?"

Ms Smith said about 70 per cent of CBD traffic was motorists looking for parking, which could be partially alleviated by sharing carpark spaces and using unused or vacant driveways, carparks and garages.

"Originally conceived to solve the problems of traffic congestion around sports stadiums, the pre-booking technology is now used as a solution to daily traffic congestion," she said.

"Some customers rent a residential driveway for 30 minutes a day while they drop their kids off at school and commuters rent spaces in suburban church carparks to avoid city centre traffic jams."

'Carpooling could literally halve the number of cars on our roads.'"Traffic congestion expert and author *Rachel Smith *