The council's Labor majority tabled a motion on Tuesday noting car-share operators such as GoGet had approached the council about setting up in Newcastle.

GoGet has almost 3000 cars parked on Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide streets available for members to use.

Cr Declan Clausen said the proposed policy would ensure the council monitored whether dedicated share-scheme spaces were turning over enough cars.

"The benefits of an expansion of a car-share scheme are significant, because on average five households share into one car-share car, which means you're taking, potentially, four other vehicles off the road," he said.

Cr Peta Winney-Baartz said it was "abundantly clear" the number of bicycles in the CBD was growing, and car-share companies were also showing interest in the city.

"A policy to ensure these services can be delivered effectively, efficiently and with a minimal reduction in our current parking availability is essential to achieving improvements in traffic movements," she said.  

Cr Brad Luke (Lib) said allocating parking spaces to bicycles was "detrimental" to the city, but Cr John Mackenzie (Greens) argued some houses in Newcastle East were not designed to accommodate bike storage.

"It's not the case that we're going to be converting a significant amount of car parking spaces into bike spots, but there is an identified need in parts of the city where people aren't able to get their bikes inside their house," Cr Mackenzie said.

He warned the move to accommodate car-sharing companies amounted to "privatising car spaces".

"You don't have to pay too much attention to the conversation in the city to know that there is an extraordinary preoccupation with parking at the moment," he said.

"We need to understand that this is the privatisation of a public asset ... that it will benefit certain companies at the expense, to some degree, of public amenity."

Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said having varied and integrated transport was the "absolute key to making this city work in perpetuity for decades to come".

"This city will only function in the future as it densifies if we get those multi-modal mixes right," she said.

The council also voted to exhibit stage two of its Newcastle West plan, including better footpaths and a cycleway in Hunter Street. The plan, first mooted in 2010, was suspended five years ago when the state government opted to install light rail.