Carsharing

Carsharing is a system where a fleet of cars (or other vehicles) is owned and operated/overseen by a company, public agency, cooperative, ad hoc grouping, or even a single individual, and made available for use by members of the carshare group in a wide variety of ways. The costs and troubles of vehicle purchase, ownership and maintenance are transferred to a central organizer (the Carshare Operator or more familiarly CSO). It has been around in various forms for more than half a century, but it is only in the last decade that it has begun to gather force as a viable alternative to car ownership—for some people and some places. Today there are more than six hundred cities in the world ^* where you can carshare.

As is often the case with innovations that spring up more or less spontaneously in different parts of the world, operations are organized in many different ways in different places, according to the objectives of the organizers and users. A small informal start-up may have only one shared car, and only a handful of sharers. In the larger services that are increasingly coming into existence, participants are typically city-dwellers whose transportation needs are largely met by public transit, walking, or cycling.

Carsharing is not only a way for individuals or groups to meet their specific mobility requirements, but it is also taking its place as a key part of what is now increasingly being called the New Mobility Agenda, which combines Transportation Demand Management TDM strategies and measures for containing, channeling and limiting private car traffic in cities, with support of a “bouquet” of alterative transportation arrangements. These include utility cycling, walking, public space improvement, electronic substitutes for travel (such as telework, telecommuting or e-work) and a variety of shared and public transport strategies, new and old, including carpooling, ride sharing, car rentals and taxis.

Carsharing has been called “the missing link” of the New Mobility Agenda, insofar as it permits people to give up their cars and in the process make fuller use of these other ways of getting around in cities.

History

Carsharing has been around for a long time, in a variety of places and ways, most of them informal and hidden from public view. The first reference in print identifies the Selbstfahrergenossenshaft carshare program in a housing cooperative that got underway in Zurich in 1948, but there was no known formal development of the concept in the next few years. By the 1960s as innovators, industrialists, cities, and public authorities studied the possibility of high-technology transportation—mainly computer-based small vehicle systems (almost all of them on separate guideways)—it was possible to spot some early precursors to present-day service ideas and control technologies.

The early 1970s saw the first two great pioneering whole-system carshare projects. The ProcoTip system in France lasted only about two years. A much more ambitious project called the Witkar was launched in Amsterdam by the founders of the 1968 white bicycles project. A sophisticated project based on small electric vehicles, electronic controls for reservations and return, and plans for a large number of stations covering the entire city, the project endured into the mid-1980s before finally being abandoned.

The 1980s and first half of the 1990s was a "coming of age" period for carsharing, with continued slow growth, mainly of smaller non-profit systems, many in Switzerland and Germany, but also on a smaller scale in Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States. The real watershed in the development of the sector came in the 1990s with such larger and more structured projects as StattAuto in Germany, the two precursors of Mobility Carshare Greenwheels ^*" target="_blank" >in the Netherlands, CommunAuto AutoShare in Canada, Flexcar in Portland, Oregon, Zipcar in Boston and CityCarClub [http://www.citycarclub.co.uk" target="_blank" >^* in England and Scotland.

This 1990s wave of innovation continued into the present decade, with carshare developments advancing at different speeds in different countries, but with a generally accelerating pace when taken in sum. The state of the art in carsharing in 2006 is increasingly competitive, increasingly well financed, and increasingly high tech. Smaller and simpler systems continue to grow in number and in some cases to prosper, but the emerging competition is in mid- and large-size cites. Whether the future belongs to non-profits or profit-making firms is hotly debated, with head-to-head competition in a growing list of cities, not only in the United States, including San Francisco and Washington, DC, but also in London in the United Kingdom where 3 main operators go head to head and Hamburg in Germany. At the same time, discussions and competition are increasing in European cities, where the winning model is still far from decided.

By 2005 there are more than two hundred carshare organizations in operation world-wideand more than six hundred cities [http://ecoplan.org/carshare/general/cities.htm around the world in which such a service exists.

Carsharing: what it is and is not

Terminology: Despite its evident English language origins, the term Carsharing (earlier often written as two separate words, and still today occasionally hyphenated) is now the widely accepted international term. The most prominent exceptions include "Autoteilen" in German, "Autodelen" in Dutch, "Autopartage" in French, and "Bilpool" in Swedish. In the United Kingdom the words "Car Clubs" are used. Car Sharing is used in the UK to refer to ride sharing. This list goes on, almost every local operations has its own favored term. Among them: Andelsbilklub, AutoDelen, Autotaxis, Autoteilen, Auto zum Teilen, Autoparate, Autovermietung, Bilpool, Block Cars, Caisse Commune, CampusCars, car-sharing, CarSharing, Caisse Commune, Car-Share, CityCarClub, community cars, CHOICE, cOgO Car, Co-Op Auto Network, Cooperative Auto Network (CAN), Dancing Rabbit, GreenCar, ICVS, HaBil, Motor Pool Co-operative, NTUC CarCo-op. Posibil (Norway), PubliCars, self-drive taxis, Stadtcar, StattAuto, Stadtmobil, Station Cars, teilAuto, (ultra) short term car rental, Witkars, and ZipCar.

Carsharing is not Carpooling or ride-sharing: Carpooling or ride-sharing is shared use of a car (with the exception of the United Kingdom), in particular for commuting to work, often by people who each have a car but travel together to save costs. However, there is a slight terminological hitch in the UK where the term car sharing (two words in this usage) is used for what in the U.S. is called "ride sharing". Carsharing in the sense discussed in this article is a recent development in Britain, and while such plans are still known more known as car clubs (a term which, in the U.S., refers strictly to a club of car hobbyists) the international term carsharing is gradually gaining currency there as well.

Carsharing is not a substitute for public transport. It does an entirely different job, and in most of the 600+ cities where it has become established thus far, it is seen as a complement to scheduled transport service. Many studies show that carshare users are also relatively heavy users of both conventional public transport and of human powered transport, including bicycles and walking.

Carsharing is not car rental: The differences can be defined in the following ways:

Carsharing is an “always-on” personal mobility service (with certain technical and economic constraints at any time)
Reservation, pickup, and return are self-service.
Cars can be rented by the hour, as well as by the day.
Users are members and have been pre-approved to drive (background driving checks have been performed and a payment mechanism has been established)
Car locations are distributed throughout the service area.
Insurance and fuel costs are included in the rates.

Note: Some carshare operations (CSOs) cooperate with local car rental firms to offer best value to their customers (and in particular in situations where classic rental may be the cheaper option.)

How it works

The technology of CSOs varies enormously, from simple manual systems using key boxes and log books to increasingly complex computer-based systems with supporting software packages that handle a growing array of back office functions.

While differing markedly in their objectives, size, business models, levels of ambition, technology and target markets, these programs share most, if not all, of the following features:

An organized group of participants.
Self-accessing vehicles.
One or more shared vehicles available to all members.
Usage usually booked in advance, but with variants depending on vehicle availability and back-office software routines.
Rentals for short time periods (increments of one hour or less), but also for longer periods depending on the CSO.

The simplest CSOs have only one or two pick-up points, but more advanced systems have a decentralized network of parking locations (“pods”) stationed close to homes, workplaces and/or transit stations.

To participate in a CSO, one must usually become a member. Again there are many variants, but in the more established operations this usually requires a check of past driving records, and a monthly or annual fee. The vehicle is reserved in advance, usually over the Internet or telephone (and increasingly by mobile phones, including by SMS). Most companies charge an hourly fee for the time that the car is in use, plus a fee per mile driven. Some CSOs offer a discounted all-day rate for their cars. If a vehicle is not returned at the scheduled time, a high fee is charged, since it may interfere with other drivers' reservations.

Membership and rental fees often include the cost of gas and always insurance. Members are responsible for leaving the vehicles on time, in the agreed parking area, clean and in good condition for the next user.

Tasks to be accomplished

The Swedish National Road Administration argues that basic criteria are needed, in case “fictive car-sharing” programs are established to take advantage of special benefits offered to genuine car-sharing operators. These are proposed as follows (Vägverket, 2003):

An administrator
At least six drivers per car (after one-year start-up time)
Adequate accounting practices
Ownership by a legal entity
Vehicle requirements (e.g. age, safety rating) Source

For a new carshare start-up, here are some of the challenges that need to be faced:

Creating a viable business plan
Initial funding/support
Finding a start-up partner
Understanding car-sharing
Lack of data
Financial barriers
Regulatory obstacles
Parking issues
Establishing partnerships/understanding with local government and other mobility purveyors
Reaching the market
Serving low-income participants
Geographic and cultural barriers, and finally
The ability to execute day after day after day. Source (adapted from)

Goals, Advantages, Achievements

Carsharing is a highly decentralized phenomenon which varies in its goals and implementations widely from place to place. Similarly there are wide variations in goals, etc. The listing that follows has been compiled from numerous sources, some of which are identified in the Reference section below, and others which can be found in the shared library of resources and research the World Carshare Consortium:

Most carsharing advocates, operators and cooperating public agencies believe that those who do not drive daily or who drive less than 10,000 kilometers annually may find carsharing to be more cost-effective than car ownership. (In point of fact, x2 variations up and down on this figure are reported by operators and others depending on local context.)

16 Positive Impacts of Carsharing From World Carshare, on line reference

With all these variants in terms of size, type and organization, there is of course a huge spread in terms of actual impacts. But the basic principle of carsharing offers the following positive impacts: on those who use it, others in the community, and the city, the environment and the economy as a whole.

Saves time, money and fuss for users
By providing 'sustainable transport's missing link" encourages greater use of public and human transport
Improves access for all
Provides major potential improvements in access for poorer citizens (as result of more and better alternative transport possibilities)
Permits poorer people to have effective access to own car when they need it (while not locking them into the high costs of operating an old car)
Reduces congestion. (Fewer cars = less traffic.)
Makes better use of scarce urban real estate
Frees up parking.
Improves air quality.
Improves public safety. (Pedestrians and cyclists benefit from fewer cars on the road.)
Reduces use of imported fossil fuels (thereby helping the national economy).
Supports the local economy 1: Former car owners save thousands per year
Supports the local economy 2: Less money spent on road construction, maintenance and policing
Provides a means for more economic use of fleet cars
Helps fight obesity and other diseases linked to insufficient physical activity
Encourages neighborliness and cooperative action by citizens - thereby setting a model for other social and economic problems of the city

See the excellent Carsharing section of the TDM Encyclopedia of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute for more on this.

For the individual

Retains all the advantages of a car, when needed (i.e., gives up nothing)
Convenience, less hassle
Cost savings
For some (many) the environmental advantages of carsharing count a lot
Sense of social responsibility
And personal initiative
Increased sense of community and neighborliness
Social inclusion (that is, makes car-like mobility available when needed to people who otherwise might not be able to afford their own car.)
Has phased collective impact through expanding market, of improving public transport and quality of transit for human-powered transport.
Improved organization of own time (since each time you ask yourself "is this trip necessary" as opposed to traveling at the drop of a hat.)
A certain, call it, snob value (in that you thereby send a signal that you are part of a new wave of social attitudes and practices)

City perspectives

From the vantage of the city or community, here are some of the reasons why carsharing is looked on as a useful new mobility strategy:

Reduce total vehicle distances traveled VMT -- and with it emissions
Serves to reduce car ownership, and in particular reduce parking demand
Replaces more polluting older vehicles on the margin with newer and cleaner collectively used vehicles
Increases both the general population’s and low-income households’ possibilities to have access to a car
Provides an otherwise missing component of the city's Mobility strategy.
Reinforces ridership in transport systems.
Provides evidence that the city cares and is supportive of new innovations
Helps move the city toward Kyoto-Compliance.

Global perspectives

Offers significant scope for improved resource efficiency
A new market for automobile manufacturers
Considerable scope for energy savings

What is wrong with carsharing? Constraints, disadvantages, and commonly held beliefs

Carsharing is unfamiliar, and since it competes with an idea and mode of life which is largely supported by the media (not necessarily consciously), entrenched habits and beliefs, and broadly shared aspirations of many people in many places (that is owning and driving your own car), it is not an easy idea to get across in practice.

In the developing world, there are several main currents of resistance to this transportation concept. By many observers, including experts, it is felt to be irrelevant given the scope of the problems that especially the larger and more traffic strangled mega-cities face. It is also seen as elitist. And finally too much against the grain of people's aspirations to be worth giving time and public resources to in order to develop.

The automotive industry obviously has problems with this approach which of course risks to eat into their markets.

Overall and despite recent advances in many places, it is considered at most a minor mobility option of limited potential and utility.

Carsharing cannot succeed in isolation. It requires a supporting environment if it is to succeed.

The concept does not work well in heavily suburbanized areas (those suffering from urban sprawl) - such areas are generally built for those who own a vehicle, and a resident would not be able to conveniently reach a central pickup location if there is insufficient public transit.

As a general rule, carsharing runs into problems in places where significant numbers of people need a car to get to work or for other every day transport needs.

It is also important that there be adequate density of these potential users so that a vehicle can be well used. Therefore, carsharing has met with success in dense cities, and in some university towns.

External links

Where it works

Carshare operations exist today in more than 600 cities world-wide. More detail on this is available here:

Mobility Carsharing Switzerland the original: 1750 cars at 1000 stations in 400 cities
World Carshare On-line inventory of carshare operators world-wide
World Carshare cities
CityCarClub (website CityCarClub)
UK "Car Clubs" (CSOs)
Map showing German cities with CSOs
Car Sharing Network - Includes list of North American and world wide cities with car shares
Wikipedia Cities list

Examples of more ambitious systems

Examples of simpler systems

Free support for small start-ups and co-ops

Other

A small animation showing how a low-tech carshare project works.
for an animation which intends to give an idea of how carsharing can impact on the urban fabric of the city.
Another clean graphic set from Flexcar in Portland, Oregon also demonstrates the process.

References

Media items/reports

Latest world news from Google

Car Sharing: A New Way to Rent (Good general overview of 13 Dec 05 from US perspective)

Notes

Road transport | Car rental | Car sharing

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