Dedicated kerbside parking for car sharing in Brisbane has been ruled out, much to the chagrin of the city's non-administration councillors.
Labor had taken a policy to the 2016 election for off-street car sharing spaces to be included in new developments, along with dedicated kerbside spaces in high density areas.
This week, the council's sole Greens councillor Jonathan Sri (The Gabba) also joined the calls.
The council's LNP administration had already knocked back proposals for on-street parking and, under questioning from Cr Sri at this week's council meeting, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk ruled out revisiting the issue in the immediate future.
"We have examined this issue previously and have come to the view that, no, we will not be proposing to make space available on the street for private operations of a car share nature," Cr Quirk said.
"As Cr Sri has pointed out, we certainly do support car sharing schemes, be they through body corporates, and I think that, as time progresses, we will see more and more car sharing scheme within developments or unit facilities, whatever the case may be."
Cr Quirk said the council's parking task force considered kerbside space for car sharing "more than once" and had decided against it.
"The conclusion was that we ought certainly to continue to promote the use of car sharing schemes, but we would not necessarily look at the additional spaces being made for the car share schemes," he said.
"...If you were to allow various private sector car sharing schemes to take up more and more spaces on the curb, that loss of spaces would have to be worn by the rest of the community.
"People are already screaming about the tightness of parking, particularly in the inner-city areas. We're very conscious of that."
Car sharing, in which members could book cars online and collect them from designated parking spaces, was designed to reduce car ownership and congestion in high density areas.
Dedicated spaces formed part of Labor's 2016 election platform, which was ultimately rejected by Brisbane voters in March.
"We thought that car sharing could be incorporated as a condition in DAs for bodies corporate to run, but we also thought – particularly in high density areas where residential permits were in place – it could be used as a mechanism to drive down parking demand," Labor councillor Shayne Sutton said.
"All the data of car sharing programs show that's the case both internationally and in Australia."
Cr Sri said he was disappointed that Cr Quirk remained unmoved on the issue.
"I understand concerns about leasing out a public asset (part of the roadway) to private companies or non-profit organisations, but we already do this with taxi ranks, footpath dining, and allowing private construction companies to close off roads and footpaths to facilitate for-profit development projects," he said.
"This isn't a simple issue, and reasonable people can disagree about how important car sharing will be in Brisbane's long-term transport mix, but for the LNP to rule out supporting on-street car share schemes altogether seems like a missed opportunity."
One car share company, GoGet, said it has seen 20 per cent growth in Brisbane over the past six months, although it did not reveal the base figure.
"We are keen to hear more about the mayor's vision for carshare as a public transport option for Brisbane," GoGet head of locations Christopher Vanneste said.
"We share his concern around parking pressure, and welcome the opportunity to engage council further with the latest data on how car share can dramatically improve congestion, parking and liveability for the whole community."
