Rural carshare project A thinking exercise & Invitation for comment

worldstreets.wordpress.com /2014/03/21/rural-carshare-project-a-thinking-exerciseinvitation-f or-comment/ Eric Britton

We keep reading and are repeat edly inf ormed t hat f or carsharing t o work t here must be good public t ransport , cycling and ot her mobilit y arrangement s as indispensable complement s. In ot her words, f or carsharing t o work you have t o be not only in a cit y, but in a cert ain kind of cit y. T his posit ion has been an art icle of f ait h f or many carshare observers f or more t han a decade, and while t here is a cert ain logic t o it , upon inspect ion it t urns out t here is a lot more t o successf ul carsharing t han t hat .

This is a draft working paper from our joint 2014 Going Dutch Carshare Strategies program for the Dutch governments KpVV, for which you will find a detailed menu and links in the upper left menu here.

Let us put our heads t oget her and run an inf ormal t hinking exercise and t ake a look at how carsharing might work not in a cit y but in a less t han af f luent rural communit y where t here is close t o zero public t ransport along wit h a not able absence of ot her ways of get t ing around, ot her t han owning and driving a car. Now such a sparsely set t led out lying rural space is quit e obviously not a place in which Zipcar, Hert z on Demand or car2go are likely t o show up t omorrow morning and negot iat e wit h t he village elders f or a new service. So if we wish t o f igure out how t o do some lowcost ef f icient carsharing in our rural communit y, we are just going t o have t o get down and do it on our own. We are t arget ing here a specif ically rural carshare operat ion, but similar sharing arrangement s have been around f or decades, in many places and in surprisingly large numbers (t hough t he st at ist ics are poor on t hese of f -t he-record privat e sharing arrangement s). T hey are generally ref erred t o as informal, private, cooperative or neighborhood carshare operat ions. But let us st ick wit h our simple rural example f or now. What about this to get us started? In one variant , t hree or f our neighboring f amilies get t oget her and t oget her obt ain a used car in reasonably good condit ion, t aking advant age at t his point in 2014 of except ionally low prices in t he used car market . If we t ake t he Net herlands f or example, it should be easily possible t o f ind a midrange used car in reasonably good shape f or somet hing on t he order

of 2000, possibly less. T hat gives us a f irst point of depart ure f or our rural carshare project . In our t est case a small handf ul of individuals or f amilies get t oget her and each one put s in, say, 500. Or alt ernat ively t hey will use a vehicle which t hat of t he part ies already owns. So now we already have (a) our sharing group and (b) our car. (T here may be a wrinkle t hat will need at t ent ion in t erms of joint ownership, but I doubt t hat would be a problem in most places.) Next we will need an operat ional prot ocol which clearly spells out t he condit ions of use of each of t he owners/aut horized drivers. T his will best cert ainly t ake t he f orm of a legal cont ract which specif ies one by one all of t he areas of responsibilit y and use. (T here are numerous examples of such prot ocols so t here is no need t o st art f rom scrat ch.) As part of t his and most import ant ly we need t o give our at t ent ion t o insurance, and f or t he purposes of our model let us assume t hat we f ind an insurance company willing t o provide insurance f or t he ownership group at a reasonable rat e. (Since t hese kinds of arrangement s exist in more places t han one might t hink, it would be reasonable t o assume t hat wit h a bit of research it will be possible t o f ind our cooperat ing insurer.) T he next st ep will be t o def ine t he support ing syst em, t he process of reservat ion. T his can be done manually, t hough bet t er will be t he use of social media and/or any of t he simple carshare reservat ion schemes which are available eit her f ree or at low cost . So as a sign-in member of t he group I can now have a car (my car, kind of ) at my disposal at a reasonable level of cost and can make a reservat ion f rom, let us say, T hursday noon unt il 1800 hrs. on t he same day, on t he underst anding t hat t he vehicle will be ret urned in good condit ion and in a t imely manner t o our agreed parking area. (Somet hing which will be cost less or close t o it given t he f act t hat we are dealing wit h light ly set t led areas.) T his is of t en as a class ref erred t o as privat e carsharing, and since t here are f ew known st at ist ics on it at t his point , it remains t o be seen how it might be bet t er known in t he f ut ure, wit h t he t hought t hat if it is caref ully done it would represent a public asset which can only prof it f rom wise public at t ent ion and support . For now in t he carsharing world all eyes are t urned on classic carsharing along t he model which has dominat ed over t he last 20 years, and more recent ly one-way carsharing and P2P (peer-t o-peer or person t o person). But privat e carsharing is going t o be an import ant player in t he f ut ure, so now seems like a good t ime t o begin t o organize our t hought s and policies on it . And here is where nat ional and local government can be ready t o st ep in and lend a hand. If . . . t hey have worked out a st rat egy.

If you wish to get a running start and dig deeper into the details of setting up an informal carshare operation, you may wish to have a look at Carplus UKs Guidance Note of May 2012 Running an informal car club which is available at http://goo.gl/bYhGE2. Another excellent reference is the Belgian informal carshare group Autopedia: http://www.autopartage.be/p_228.htm.

Some other thoughts:

Only rural? Of course not . We have chosen t o t ake t he rural set t ing as our point of depart ure f or t his recommendat ion since we f inally have here a mobilit y opt ion t hat can

work in t hese needf ul places. (See t he Neighborhood Car concept in Germany and ot her part s of Europe and Nort h America f or use in ot her set t ings.) P2P: T his object ive of a rural carshare or , if you pref er, neighborhood car be adequat ely or bet t er served by P2P ? Could well be, so t here is every reason t hat t his opt ion should also be checked out . Environmental impacts : What about t he negat ive environment al impact s of one more old car circulat ing on t he road syst em and as such adding t o t he overall pollut ion load of t he t ransport syst em? T his needs t o be t aken int o considerat ion f rom a public policy perspect ive, but t here is not hing like a bit of research and some solid numbers t o t ake an inf ormed posit ion on t his import ant quest ion. Of f t he t op of my head, my guess is t hat given all t he pot ent ial benef it s, t his is unlikely t o be a deciding f act or. But let us let t he research work t his one out . Ridesharing potential: Here is anot her hunch: when it becomes known in t he small communit y t hat t here is a new means of mobilit y available, it would seem likely t hat t here will be signif icant pot ent ial f or ride sharing t o develop around t he basic model. T he word get s out , t he car is t here f or all t o see, and t he sof t ware exist s t o combine t he carsharing and ridesharing f unct ions quit e neat ly. Again, good policy counsel and guidelines f rom government and t he research communit y can cert ainly play a role in making t his happen. Equity: What are t he kinds of people and communit ies who are likely t o benef it f rom t he development of new f orms of af f ordable mobilit y in out lying areas? T hey will in t he main be poorer rat her t han richer. Older rat her t han younger. Less rat her t han more educat ed. Cut of f f rom public services and enjoyable day-t o-day experiences and t ransact ions because t here is simply no way f or t hem t o access t hem convenient ly and af f ordably.(1) For excellent reasons why t he Going Dut ch project in it s next st ages should be giving at t ent ion t o t hese privat e opt ions as well as t o more convent ional f orms of carsharing . T he role of government: A f air number of t he 406 municipalit ies in t he Net herlands are rural and light ly set t led. And hard t o serve by t radit ional public t ransport means. Moreover, it would seem reasonable t o guess t hat f ew of t hese key local government unit s are at present prepared t o t ake an act ive role in encouraging rural carsharing, in large part because it is not f amiliar t o t hem. However since we now know t hat t he key act or in encouraging and support ing more and bet t er carsharing is local government , t his looks like somet hing t hat is wort h looking int o more closely wit hin t he current program. T he role of nat ional government in t urn is t o help local government t o be f ully inf ormed as t o t he advant ages and ways of going about creat ing more and bet t er carsharing. Next steps: T his rough exercise is being dist ribut ed t o t he number of colleagues in dif f erent count ries who have bet t er hands-on knowledge of dif f erent kinds of carsharing operat ions and t he bit of luck we will be able t o f act or in t heir more solid inf ormat ion t o add an import ant sect ions of t he in-process Going Dut ch project . (1) If we bear in mind that the typical carsharer in most parts of the world until now have had a quite different access and mobility profile from that which we can expect to find expect to find in rural areas: i.e., the studies show that they are typically relatively young, relatively well-off, relatively well-educated and more likely than not living in a place in which many of their daily shopping and service requirements are close at hand and which offers relatively good levels of public transit, cycling and other non-car access. ###

Reader Comment:
Alan Woodland, 20 March 2014 If t he people sharing t he car f ormed a co-operat ive, t he cost s of vehicle ownership could be shared wit hin t his ent it y. An advant age t o t he co-operat ive st ruct ure is t hat t he online booking syst em at www.carshareverywhere.net (developed by Modo Co-operat ive) can be made available t o small co-ops wit h less t han 10 vehicles at no cost . ### The editor: Just t o be sure, t his is a pure t hinking and sharing exercise, and is not int ended in t he f orm you see it here as anyt hing more t han t hat . Fort unat ely f or anyone who wishes t o dig deeper, t here is a considerable body of experience and inf ormat ion available t o t he diligent researcher or planner t hat can help f ill in t he many blanks t hat appear here . And in t he event , t here is not hing part icularly new about privat e or inf ormal carsharing, alt hough it is dif f icult t o appreciat e it s exact ext ent given t hat t hese are t he kinds of relat ionships and t ransact ions t hat rarely if ever get picked up by t he st at ist ics. What good government can bring t o t his ongoing phenomenon is t o help make available reliable inf ormat ion on key issues and means of making t hese arrangement s more ef f ect ive and more numerous. It also may t urn out upon st udy t hat ot her f orms of support might also be called on, in order t o help f acilit at e af f ordable and ef f icient t ransport at ion opt ions f or groups and areas t hat t oday are not f airly served. But all t hat will come out of t he preparat ory st udies and analysis. Some references: * Aut opia, Belgium ht t p://www.aut opart age.be/p_228.ht m * Carplus UK Running an inf ormal car club - ht t p://goo.gl/bYhGE2.

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