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Our cities need new mobility systems that are integrated, clean, smart, and customer-oriented.
With the race on to find viable alternatives to the private motor car, one mobility trend which has rapidly gained ground worldwide is the introduction of professional car sharing services. A car sharing service provides members with reliable and convenient access to cars on-demand, in a network of locations across the city. With the integration of web-based technologies, car sharing now has tens of thousands of members across North America, Europe and parts of Asia swapping private car ownership for access to a mixed fleet of motor vehicles. By the end of 2003 the number of professional car sharing services in European cities exceeded 250 with a total membership of more than 200,000. North America has quickly followed Europe with successful services now operating in more than 60 cities in the USA and Canada and a combined membership of over 80,000. Whilst car manufacturer Volkswagen pioneered car sharing services in Germany in the mid-1980s, Japanese car manufacturers Honda and Toyota have also been quick to take the lead, with Honda now running its own services in Singapore and Japan, and part-owner of one of the largest services in the United States. In the German city of Bremen, some of the future potential of car sharing services was achieved with the full integration of car share vehicles into the overall transport system. By utilising a smart-card residents can seamlessly transfer across all transport services including a network of over 100 car sharing vehicles. In November 2004 CarShare Australia presented in partnership with futureffect a seminar series in Sydney and Melbourne on car sharing titled ‘Re-inventing the Private Car – Changing Personal Mobility in the 21st Century’.
For more information on Car sharing worldwide you could start with:
To visit some examples of car sharing services overseas:
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