Residents of a planned upmarket apartment development in Foxrock, south Dublin, could be able to avail of "pay as you go driving" from five shared GoCar vehicles to be based at the address.
Last month, the Granville Partnership lodged plans with An Bord Pleanála for 142 build-to-rent apartments at Roselawn and Aberdour on Stillorgan Road in Foxrock.
In order to reduce the car dependency of the residents living there, GoCarCarsharing Ltd has confirmed to the appeals board that it intends to provide five shared car club vehicles for the development.
The company is Ireland’s leading car-sharing service with 40,000 members and 600 cars and vans across 18 counties.
Colm Brady, chief executive of the parent group of GoCar, the Europcar Mobility Group, confirmed that GoCar is planning to locate its first GoCar in a new residential development this summer arising from an agreement with a developer and as part of the planning process.
Commitment
He said that 30 different builders have made contact with GoCar since the start of this year seeking letters of commitment from it to provide GoCars in their new residential developments.
Mr Brady said: “We have had more developers wanting to have in place GoCars in their developments in the first quarter of this year than throughout the whole of 2018.”
He said that developers would be able use the availability of a GoCar in the marketing of their new developments while it would reduce the need to provide expensive and inefficient car-spaces for each apartment.
Mr Brady said Dublin City Council encouraging car-sharing in new developments was a "game-changer for us".
He said 400 companies across the country are currently using GoCar’s fleet of cars.
In a letter to An Bord Pleanála, GoCar's head of growth Rob Kearns said that GoCar members can rent the cars from €4 for half an hour use, with fuel, insurance and maintenance included. He said "each GoCar which is placed in a community has the potential to replace the journeys of up to 15 private cars".
“By allowing multiple people to use the same vehicle at different times, car sharing reduces car ownership, car dependency, congestion, noise and air pollution. It frees up land which would otherwise be used for additional parking spaces,” he said.
Mr Kearns said GoCar currently has spaces reserved in six developments in Dublin with management companies, but these deals don’t form part of any planning process.
