At the recent University Workshop I attended in Perth, one of the presentations addressed the issue of car sharing as a means to reduce the number of vehicles requiring parking on
campuses. We were informed that there are web based systems on offer which act as a kind of “RSVP” matching service allowing people travelling from the same location on a similar schedule to meet up and share the trip into the university (as well as the costs). Some examples of these include CarpoolConnect.com, eRideShare.com, and in Australia, TheCarPool.com.au. Customers under these kinds of agreements are normally rewarded by allocated parking spaces closer to the destination and/or reduced parking rates.
All this reminded me that when I was at University, attending a Sydney CBD campus which no longer exists, we used to make such arrangements by speaking to each other in the lecture rooms! In fact, a fellow student one day called out before the start of the lesson: “I live in the northern beaches and want to be able to use the transit lane into Sydney – does anybody live in the area who wants to share my car?” That was the beginning of a friendship which lasts to this day!
Much in the same way that we rely on the internet and our computers for our daily communications , shopping and even making some of the most important decisions in our lives (such as searching for a life partner), car sharing has now reached another level of sophistication altogether!