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...

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.