A New Moment for Carsharing in the Netherlands

worldstreets.wordpress.com /2014/04/09/a-new-moment-f or-carsharing-in-the-netherlands/ Eric Britton

Over t he last decade carsharing has increasingly proven it self t o be an ef f ect ive mobilit y opt ion, serving f or well more t han 1000 cit ies on all cont inent s. A key element of an int egrat ed mobilit y st rat egy f or people and f or cit ies, it is a t hrif t y t ransport mode and largely self -f inancing. People choose t o carshare not because t hey are obliged t o, but because it of f ers a choice. T hey do it because t hey see it as a bet t er, more economical way t o get around f or a port ion of t heir t rips. Properly posit ioned it has shown t hat carsharing can of f er signif icant pot ent ial f or energy savings, pollut ion reduct ion, space savings on t he st reet , and reduced requirement f or expensive public invest ment s in inf rast ruct ure t o support cars and/or convent ional public t ransport . So carsharing def init ely works. At t he same t ime however by it s nat ure it cannot be expect ed t o accommodat e more t han a f ract ion of a percent of t he t ot al t ransport requirement s of t he cit y. However it should not be t reat ed as an isolat ed mode or minor det ail. It must be underst ood as one part , a crit ical part even, of t he global mobilit y package being brought online in leading cit y af t er cit y around t he world t o replace t he t ot ally unsust ainable, dominant 20th cent ury pract ice of a no-choice car-based t ransport at ion syst em.

Carsharing in the Netherlands

T he Net herlands can count it self among t he world leaders when it comes t o new ways of owning and using cars. Carsharing got st art ed in t he Net herlands early and wit h a bang, wit h t he launching in 1974 of t he Amst erdam Wit kar. Wit kar was t he worlds f irst modern carsharing syst em, of f ering low-cost , clean, shared, independent cit y t ransport f or more t han 4000 regist ered Amst erdamers f rom 1974 t o 1986. T hus it is correct t o say t hat t he Dut ch were among t he early invent ors of t his innovat ive mobilit y concept and succeeded in put t ing it t o good use in t heir day-t o-day lives f or close t o a decade. But t hen, lacking support at t he nat ional and cit y level, it suddenly came t o an end.

Inventor Luud Schimmelpennink at wheel of Witkar, Amsterdam 1978 Af t er t he disappearance of Wit kar it t ook t he bet t er part of t wo decades f or carsharing t o get back on t rack in t he Net herlands. St art ing in t he lat t er 1990s a range of independent groups and ent repreneurs st epped in t o provide a new generat ion of t ransport services. Advancing t o t he point where t hings st and t oday: namely somet hing on t he order of >5200 vehicles collect ively serving t hree quart ers of all t he municipalit ies in t he count ry (up respect ively f rom 759 vehicles, wit h 11% nat ional coverage in 2002). Unt il recent ly t his usef ul but unconvent ional t ransport service has been largely neglect ed by nat ional government s and has f or t he most part been t reat ed on an ad hoc basis, if at all, by t he cit ies, who are along wit h t he carsharers t hemselves t he primary benef iciaries and part ners. We call t his past pat t ern t he age of neglect . T he Going Dutch: City Carshare Strategies project was launched in lat e 2013 by t he KpVVs Mobilit y Management program in cooperat ion wit h EcoPlan Int ernat ional, wit h t he goal of st imulat ing a broad dialogue wit h local and nat ional government on lat est development s in t he f ast -growing f ield of carsharing, in an at t empt t o put t his relat ively recent concept int o a broader st rat egic planning f rame f or t he benef it of all.

Carsharing Coverage in the Netherlands: 2013

As of 2013 t he KpVV calculat ed t hat 76% of all municipal areas in t he count ry had at least some f orm of carsharing (up f rom 11% in 2002). T he st rongest growt h in 2013 was in t he f orm of P2P vehicles. T here is no coverage in t he map of private or informal carsharing which is t hought t o be rat her ext ensive but by nat ure of t he privat e t ransact ion dif f icult if not impossible t o t rack given present pract ices (but which because t hey are already import ant f or t hose who depend on t hem and apparent ly growing in number are cert ainly wort h a closer look in t he perspect ive of t his project ).

Dutch Carshare

Operators in 2014 [1]

Traditional carsharing CareCar

ht pp://www.Carecar.nl Connect car ht pp://www.connect car.nl Drive ht pp://www.drive.nl Greenwheels ht t ps://www.greenwheels.nl Mywheels (part ially t radit ional CS/ part ially P2P) ht pp://mywheels.nl St udent car ht pp://st udent car.nl Zoem ht pp://zoom.nl Mobilit y-S ht t p://www.mobilit y-s.nl Flexcar ht t p://www.f lexcar.nl/ MobielGedeeld (SharedMobility ) www.mobielgedeeld.nl P2P SnappCar ht pp://www.snappcar.nl Mywheels (part ially t radit ional CS/ part ially P2P) ht pp://mywheels.nl WeGo ht pp://www.wego.nu/nl B&B Account ant s ? Deelaut o Zut phen ht t p://www.deelaut ozut phen.nl Toyot a Bot man ht t p://www.t oyot a-bot man.nl/ One-way carsharing

Car2Go ht t ps://www.car2go.com/en/amst erdam/ Other Vereniging Gedeeld Aut ogebruik (support s privat e carsharing init iat ives) ht t p://www.deelaut o.nl Zwolle deelt aut os- aut odelenzwolle.nl (Privat e carshare St art -up) Several companies of f ering services f or company shared cars [1] Not e: Some of t hese are very small and new. And all t he rest evolving rapidly. ### * Excerpt ed f rom draf t of KpVV/Ecoplan report of 7 April 2014, Going Dut ch: Carshare Strategies f or Local Government. For f urt her inf ormat ion: KpVV: (Kennisplat f orm Verkeer en Vervoer Knowledge Plat f orm f or Mobilit y and Transport ). Support s local and regional aut horit ies in t heir ef f ort s t o develop and implement mobilit y and t ransport policy by providing pract ical know-how, developing report s and guidelines, arranging meet ings, and set t ing up net works. Contact : Friso Met z. Project manager mobilit eit s management . Jaarbeursplein 22, Ut recht ht t p://www.kpvv.nl T +31 (0)30 291 8209. Skype: kkpvmet z EcoPlan International: An independent advisory net work and NGO providing st rat egic counsel f or government and indust ry in t he areas of economic development , sust ainable t ransport and sust ainable cit ies. Specializing in t he polit ics of t ransport at ion and support ed by a dist inguished Int ernat ional Advisory Council of out st anding f igures in t he f ield. Contact: Eric Brit t on, MD. EcoPlan 9, rue Gabillot , 69003 Lyon France ht t p://worldst reet s.wordpress.com/ T. +336 5088 0787 Skype: newmobilit y

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