Reinventing Transport

Could we end the era of mass car ownership without a huge fight ("they're coming to take our cars!") and without draconian policies?  That's the focus of this article and podcast episode (Reinventing Transport #11). It is based on an essay I wrote in 2011 (but unfortunately never published). I speculated about a future dominated by "shared" modes of transport and with much less personal possession of motor vehicles. I was overly optimistic in places and likely wrong on various points. But I hope I was wrong in thought-provoking ways. I think this is still relevant 8 years later to ideas like Mobility as a Service and initiatives such as the " Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities " and the New Urban Mobility (NUMO) alliance . But you be the judge. This edition is also a tribute to Chris Bradshaw.  Chris Bradshaw was the person who asked me to write the essay on ending mass car ownership. It was for a journal special edition he w...

I have often been a carsharing optimist . But I am also often frustrated at the seemingly slow rise of the industry. In Singapore (where I live) for example, carsharing faced decline over several years, although it may now be reviving. So it has been nice to see a spurt of carsharing good news recently. First, news from Germany's Bundesverband CarSharing  via Dave Brook on twitter  that carsharing continues to boom in Germany. Most strikingly, there is spectacular growth in one-way carsharing (the dark blue columns). Dave writes the  Carsharing.US blog . And today I see that a recent report by business advisory firm AlixPartners suggests a much larger than expected effect of carsharing on car purchases, at least in the leading USA cities for carsharing. According to the study, which surveyed 1,000 licensed drivers in 10 developed metropolitan car-sharing markets in the U.S. and 1,000 drivers nationally as a control sample, car sharing in the 10 key mar...

Dave Brook's Carsharing.US blog has two recent posts that take stock of the continued rise of carsharing. The first is a review of carsharing in 2011 and the latest looks at predictions for 2012 . Both have an international perspective and are good reads for anyone with an interest in the reinvention of urban transport services. A few highlights from Dave's assessment of carsharing in 2011:  Are we seeing a demographic tipping point? — This was the year when the mainstream marketers admitted that many in Gen Y ("the Millennials") weren't thinking about cars the same way their parents were - they'd rather have their iPhone than a car. ... Parking is fundamental - Parking is a fundamental but often under appreciated aspect of car use. It wasn't until Donald Shoup layed the cards on the table in his landmark "The High Cost of Free Parking" that most of us realized just how fundamental parking really is. And carsharing operators also know ho...

Here is another example of Combined Mobility and a big step towards realising the idea of ' mobility brokers '. This one is from Germany and it is called "mo " . It is being tested and piloted in Munich and features some beautiful design and fascinating innovations to make car-lite living very convenient. mo is a new mobility system - it helps make the city a better place to live. mo subscribers can rent bikes, cargobikes, ebikes and cars or use public transportation with just one card. With mo it pays to be eco-friendly: choose an eco-friendly transport or use your own bike to collect mo miles. The more mo miles the lower your bill. For instance if you mostly ride bikes, renting a car gets cheaper. These two videos explain much better than I could. Introducing mo from LUNAR Europe on Vimeo . mo - mobility for tomorrow from LUNAR Europe on Vimeo . For more details, check out this October 2011 press release about mo . Hat tip:  Treehugger.

I am excited by the prospect of urban 'mobility retailers' or 'mobility brokers'.  'Huh'? What is that, you ask? A mobility broker is a business that handles the retailing, marketing and information end of your mobility needs. It may not even own any vehicles or employ any drivers (and you won't have to either). You could think of it as an urban transport travel agent. Such services would probably be most attractive for people who choose not have a car of their own. Because urban mobility is much more spontaneous and immediate than long-distance travel, mobility brokers will need to handle requests extremely nimbly in real time. Most cities don't yet have such beasts in their urban transport landscape. Not yet. But I think they will emerge out the innovative and vibrant ecosystem of handheld devices, real-time information apps, social media and networking, car-sharing companies, new payment systems, telematics, location-based services, etc.  I t...

What competition do cars have in your city? I don't mean competition between Toyota, Ford or Hyundai. I don't even mean competition between cars and public transport for this morning's work trips. I am talking about competition between a car-owning lifestyle and a set of alternatives that add up to a whole lifestyle, creating a complete 'mobility package' attractive enough to make car ownership feel optional. In places like Manhattan or Hong Kong or the inner cities of Zurich, Paris, Tokyo or London a lifestyle without your own car is already an attractive option even for wealthy people.   But could we extend the range of places where not having a car is an excellent lifestyle choice? Can we make car use more provisional and less locked-in to our liefstyles and our urban systems? How? Here is a presentation I gave last year which tackles some of these issues in a non-technical way. Under-appreciated and neglected urban transport policy opportunities (and ref...

Recent posts by Robin Chase at Network Musings and Dave at Carsharing.US caught my attention for their expansive vision of car-sharing and its reach. Robin has a broad vision on sharing. It is a theme explored throughout her blog. In a recent post on innovation in transport policy, one of her key suggestions is to: Allow owners of private vehicles to accept money in exchange for renting out their own vehicle, driving other people in it, or accepting money from people ride-sharing. We need to recognize that sharing cars and maximizing the number of people using each vehicle and getting mobility satisfaction out of each car is vastly preferred over the current single owner status quo. Dave at Carsharing.US shows that part of Robin's agenda is already happening - under the name 'Peer-to-peer carsharing and car rental'. His whole post is worth reading but here are a few excerpts: What is peer to peer carsharing? It's traditional carsharing using privately owned ve...

It's interesting to see the ideal of universal car ownership gradually eroding. Don't believe me? There have been several books in recent years along the lines of " Divorce your car! " and " How to live well without a car ". The rise of car-sharing has prompted some to see it as a potential alternative to car ownership. The car-free housing movement seems to be gathering pace and entering the mainstream of real estate development in certain places. Meanwhile, Shoupista parking policy reformists are increasingly questioning parking entitlements, including (gasp!) residential parking entitlements. Even William Ford Jr . of Ford Motor Company seems willing to contemplate a future in which cars provide a service rather than being primarily a product . So more and more people seem to be asking the question, 'are our cars dispensable' or 'could we make our cars more dispensable?' But maybe a more positive way to ask the same question is, 'can...

Carsharing is quietly growing and expanding to ever more cities. But will carsharing ever become mainstream? Dave Brook at the US Carsharing blog recently outlined an optimistic vision for the future of car-sharing . A Flexcar promotion in Seattle in 2007 (Flexcar is now part of Zipcar). Image by Joe Mabel on Wikimedia Commons. His scenario may not be quite as 'visionary' as Chris Bradshaw's ideas, which I have mentioned before , but is well worth a look. The comments discussion is also enlightening. As you would expect, his focus is on American conditions. Here are some highlights: Carsharing will be in the suburbs , as well, and not just around transit hubs and regional centers where higher density mixed used development can support carsharing. ... Car owners will be able to make their cars available to the carsharing members for a few days at a time and share the revenues with the service. ... Carsharing will team up with public transit agencies, including a new...

Imagine a future where most of us have easy access to cars whenever we want but few people have a car of their own. Does that sound horrifying or wonderful to you? Chris Bradshaw is an imaginative thinker about urban transport. A retired planner form Ottawa in Canada, he has long been an advocate for pedestrian rights. More recently, he has made car-sharing a passion. Bradshaw's vision for the role of carsharing is ambitious and striking. He envisages a future in which having a car of your own becomes the exception. The normal way to get access to a car would be through what he calls MASC, or 'metered access to shared cars' . This would make car-sharing, taxis and car-rental much more central to urban transport policy making than they are now. [Note: Carsharing enterprises are sometimes called car-clubs or car co-ops but don't confuse carsharing with ride-sharing or car-pooling.] He explains his ideas in a paper entitled, 'How Carsharing Can Reduce the ''D...