REPORT: UITP workshop sustainable development and CarSharing – the missing link

Although sessions were seperate, there were plenty plenary opportunities to compare conclusions and talk about integrating car sharing into broader sustainable development plans. Because it is time public transport companies start considering the shared car as a possible partner in achieving sustainable development, instead of as an enemy to public transport or sustainability.

The workshop turned out an eye opener. CarSharing can be the missing link in your city’s sustainable transport system. If you do not live in one of 600 cities that already have CarSharing, that is.

Progress is about to be made with the UITP Sustainable Development Charter as well. It was proposed and widely supported at the workshop that car sharing become part of the charter.

Definition
The World CarShare Consortium defines CarSharing in terms of shared ownership. It goes further than sharing a ride or even regular car pooling. In the Netherlands Greenwheels is a wide-spread (40 cities) commercial car sharing company that liaises with the Dutch Railway company.

Integrated policy
Greenwheels co-founder and president Jan Borghuis attended the UITP workshop and called for an integrated policy. Air quality policy makers hardly know what urban planners do and vice versa. People need to know each other and each other’s methods. And integration of car sharing systems and public transport is needed. The UITP is lobbying to further both kinds of integration.

Famous car developer Michael Eimstad, of the Th!nk car, is not sure that is the right approach. He stresses the importance of being independent of local authorities. Of course, he has had a bad experience when his company was owned by Ford Motor Company. The latter merely used the Th!nk car to meet California's Zero Emission Vehicle mandate and otherwise continued making the cars Ford wanted.

How is it done?
So how can public transport and car sharing combine forces? Public transport companies could actually own a fleet of cars to be shared. Or they can create partnerships with automobile companies. UITP set itself the task of collecting examples of the last, to offer best practices for other interested companies.

Another question is how to offer an integrated form of transport? To facilitate the combination of differents modes of transport, German company mobil.punkt has developed just that: a mobility point. To stall or rent bicycles, hop on a bus or an underground train or take a taxi; all at one place.

Public-private solution
Mr. Eimstad now focuses on the car sharing market with the Th!nk City car. Whereas the car is too expensive for the consumer market, shared ownership could be the answer. A solution seems to presents itself for all car makers who do have excellent green prototypes, but run into the problem that many sustainable cars that do fulfill all modern consumers’ demands regarding looks and performance, are too expensive for the market.

Integrated car sharing and public transport could be the perfect public-private case: private parties could decide on ‘form’ (what cars to buy, how to arrange things so that the public will actually prefer it over taking their private cars) while public parties could facilitate: liaise with public transport companies, provide mobil.punkts and integrate policies in different fields.