Driving the car share model for Māpua

A care share initiative is gaining momentum in Māpua and now residents are being asked to fill in a survey to see which model best suits the community.

Goedele Van Cauteren suggested car sharing a few months ago as she works from home in a one-car family and occasionally needs transport when her husband has taken the car to work.

She discovered other residents liked the idea, but concedes it has a long way to go to work out how the initiative might work in Māpua.

It could either be a commercial model or a neighbourhood model, or even a hybrid of both, she says.

The concept being considered is where members have access to a shared vehicle when they need it, without owning one.

Members would book the car when they needed it, pick it up from a nearby location, use it for an agreed fee and return it for others to use.

Or, Goedele says it could be private cars rented out at an agreed fee, which she says would provide some extra income for families who have a car that is often not in use.

“A lot of cars aren’t really used to their potential,” she says. “With the survey, we’re trying to determine if there is an interest in a car share initiative and which model.

“It’s still early days, but lots of people are keen on doing something, so we are trying to determine the problems and the need,” Goedele enthuses.

Posters have been put around Māpua, asking locals for feedback on how they use their vehicles and whether they would be interested in a community car share initiative in the village.

Around the world, apps are available for car owners to rent their car out, but Goedele says a neighbourhood approach would probably work better for a small community like Māpua.

It’s also a way of bringing the community closer together which helps build resilience, she says.

Vincent Revell is keen to see the initiative gain traction, though he is also looking at a ‘ride share’ scheme.

He travels to Tākaka two days a week, and with a young family, needs another car at home.

He would rather head over the hill every week in a car with other people which would be better on a sustainability level and the pocket.

“I go from Māpua in a line of cars, and they all end up in Tākaka. You need a sustainable base of users and once you get enough cars around, it becomes more reliable. Ride sharing turns a car into a minibus.”

He says an app has been built for ride sharing in New Zealand, but it now needs marketing to get it established and there also needs to be a move away from the car-centric culture that leads to traffic jams.

Like the car share idea, Goedele says it involves education and a behavioural change to get away from the idea we need a car conveniently sitting there, rather than planning ahead.

She says Māpua is a good village to pilot a car share initiative and down the track sees similar possibilities for e-bikes, lawnmowers and anything that can be shared in the community at a price and put to more use.

The survey information is on posters around Māpua or visit https://tinyurl.com/MapuaCarShare.