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The Dunedin City Council will continue its investigations into establishing a car-share service to "meet the needs of a modern city".
At a council meeting yesterday, councillors voted 14-1 in favour of a request for proposal to identify a preferred car-share provider.
Staff will now seek an expression of interest in the scheme.
The majority of members agreed that a car-share service would be beneficial to Dunedin.
However, Cr Lee Vandervis was sceptical of research included in the report that stated "for every one car-share vehicle there is a reduction of seven to 10 private vehicles".
Through his own research, he determined these figures were self-reported data from car-share users and he did not think the council should invest $100,000 in the scheme.
Cr O’Malley said "there’s not seven to 10 people in the vehicle ... whether that number is seven to 10 or two to three, it doesn’t matter so long as the number is above one".
Cr Christine Garey said the inclusion of petrol cars in the car-share fleet conflicted with council’s emission reduction targets and net-zero 2030 goals.
She suggested a timeframe for the transition to electric vehicles should be embedded within the contract.
Infrastructure and development general manger Simon Drew said this was "a trade-off" in order for the service to have uptake, but there was an expectation the fleet would transition to electric vehicles and an exact timeframe would need to be finalised.
Cr Steve Walker said the car-share service was "not an attack on current motorists" and complemented, not opposed, current available transport options.
"Car-share is a modern and growing transport option that could offer Dunedinites genuine cost savings, traffic reductions and health benefits.
"Car-sharing doesn’t force anyone to replace what they currently do now."
A minimum age requirement of 18 was proposed in the report but other car-share services used around the country had an age requirement of 21, which excluded typical tertiary-aged students.
"A car-share programme is about meeting the needs of a modern city," Cr Andrew Whiley said.
Many car parks in the North Dunedin student area sat idle for most of the day which showed students did not need to own private vehicles, he said.
Cr David Benson-Pope said the service was "an obvious pathway to follow" and the service would benefit commuters travelling between the city and airport.
