Transport-Sharing Boosts Health, Wealth and Climate

By Paul Brown, Climate News Network

    A line of electric cars ready to be driven in a sharing program in Paris. (ehpien via Flickr)

This Creative Commons-licensed piece originated with Climate News Network.

LONDON — New research into how people’s habits change shows that everyone benefits from car-sharing schemes — apart from car manufacturers who suffer a loss of sales.

Car sharing is a growing social trend across Europe and North America and is expected to increase by 36% annually to 2020, especially in compact cities where people do not need a car every day but want to use one for family trips and holidays.

In the European Union, 72% of people live in cities and account for 70% of energy consumption, so car sharing could make a big contribution to reducing emissions as well as cutting air pollution. The increasing use of phone apps to locate the nearest vehicle or bicycle in a sharing scheme means organisation has become cheaper and simpler.

Sprawling cities

Even in North America, where cities are more sprawling, research shows there were 23 car-share operators in the US in 2014. They had 1.3 million members, sharing 19,115 cars.

In a survey conducted for the Transportation Sustainability Research Centre at the University of California Berkeley, investigations into the habits of 9,500 car-sharers showed that a quarter of the participants had sold their cars, and another quarter had postponed purchase of a new one.

The researchers concluded that one shared car replaced between nine and 13 privately-owned cars. For each family, this meant a 34%-41% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’ll be living closer together in the future,
and sharing vehicles will be even more
efficient in a compact city.”

Another positive finding was that car-sharers made more use of public transport, bicycles and walking. They saved money because of not having to pay out on car insurance, repairs and other costs.

Lars Böcker, a researcher in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at Oslo University, Norway, says: “Sharing of bicycles and cars is an innovative means of transport. We’ll be living closer together in the future, and sharing vehicles will be even more efficient in a compact city.

“There are a number of advantages to joining a car-share co-operative where members share cars as needed, or a subscription scheme where you locate the closest car available when you want to go somewhere.

“Users don’t have to think about fixed expenses, parking problems, insurance, battery charging or fuelling. The idea is that you have access to a vehicle only when you need it.”

Positively inclined

Böcker has studied attitudes to the sharing of products and services in Amsterdam. He found that women were more positively inclined to sharing than men, and that older people were less willing to share services and products than younger people. People with a non-Western cultural background shared more than the average.

The survey also inquired about the motivation for sharing. In the case of car sharing and ride sharing, it was a mix of environmental considerations and the desire to save money, according to the research.

It also showed a broad swathe of the population is positively inclined to the sharing economy.

Böcker says: “This means that these schemes have a potential for considerable up-scaling; they do not represent a niche phenomenon. Only a few people need a car daily in the city, but many need access to a vehicle now and then . . .

“Sharing can give more people access to a vehicle in just this sort of situation, without there being an increase in the total amount of vehicle transport.”