A New Moment for Carsharing in the Netherlandsworldstreets.wordpress.com /2014/04/09/a-new-moment-f or-carsharing- in-the-netherlands/

Eric Britton

Over the last decade carsharing has increasingly proven it self to be an ef fect ive mobilit yopt ion in cit ies around the world, serving for well more than 1000 cit ies on all cont inents. Akey element of an integrated mobilit y st rategy for people and for cit ies, it is a thrif t yt ransport mode and largely self -f inancing.

People choose to carshare not because they areobliged to, but because it of fers a choice. They do itbecause they see it as a bet ter, more economicalway to get around for a port ion of their t rips.Properly posit ioned it has been shown thatcarsharing can of fer signif icant potent ial for energysavings, pollut ion reduct ion, space savings on thest reet , and reduced requirement for expensivepublic investments in inf rast ructure to support carsand/or convent ional public t ransport . However in the last several years the sector hasbegun to change in some unexpected ways.

So carsharing def initely works. At the same t ime however by it s nature it cannot beexpected to accommodate more than a f ract ion of a percent of the total t ransportrequirements of the cit y. However it should not be t reated as an isolated mode or minordetail. It must be understood as one part , a crit ical part even, of the global mobilit ypackage being brought online in leading cit y af ter cit y around the world to replace thetotally unsustainable, dominant 20th century pract ice of a no-choice car-basedt ransportat ion system.

Carsharing in the Netherlands

The Netherlands can count it self among the world leaders when it comes to new ways ofowning and using cars. Carsharing got started in the Netherlands early and with a bang, withthe launching in 1974 of the Amsterdam Witkar. Witkar was the world’s f irst moderncarsharing system, of fering low-cost , clean, shared, independent cit y t ransport for morethan 4000 registered Amsterdamers f rom 1974 to 1986. Thus it is correct to say that theDutch were among the early inventors of this innovat ive mobilit y concept and succeeded input t ing it to good use in their day-to-day lives for close to a decade. But then, lackingsupport at the nat ional and cit y level, it suddenly came to an end.

Inventor Luud Schimmelpennink at wheel of Witkar, Amsterdam 1978

Af ter the disappearance of Witkar it took the bet ter part of two decades for carsharing toget back on t rack in the Netherlands. Start ing in the lat ter 1990s a range of independentgroups and ent repreneurs stepped in to provide a new generat ion of t ransport services.Advancing to the point where things stand today: namely something on the order of >5200vehicles collect ively serving three quarters of all the municipalit ies in the count ry (uprespect ively f rom 759 vehicles, with 11% nat ional coverage in 2002).

Unt il recent ly this useful but unconvent ional t ransport service has been largely neglected bynat ional governments — and has for the most part been t reated on an ad hoc basis, if atall, by the cit ies, who are along with the carsharers themselves the primary benef iciariesand partners. We call this past pat tern “the age of neglect ”.

The Going Dutch: City Carshare Strategies project was launched in late 2013 by the KpVV’sMobilit y Management program in cooperat ion with EcoPlan Internat ional, with the goal ofst imulat ing a broad dialogue with local and nat ional government on latest developments inthe fast -growing f ield of carsharing, in an at tempt to put this relat ively recent concept intoa broader st rategic planning f rame for the benef it of all.

Carsharing Coverage in the Netherlands: 2002

As of 2002 the KpVV reported that 11% of all municipal areas in the count ry had at leastsome form of carsharing, with service provided by a total of 769 vehicles.

Carsharing Coverage in the Netherlands: 2013

As of 2013 the KpVV calculated that 76% of all municipal areas in the count ry had at leastsome form of carsharing (up f rom 11% in 2002). The st rongest growth in 2013 was in theform of P2P vehicles.

There is no coverage in the map of private or informal carsharing which is thought to berather extensive but by nature of the private t ransact ion dif f icult if not impossible to t rackgiven present pract ices (but which because they are already important for those whodepend on them and apparent ly growing in number are certainly worth a closer look in theperspect ive of this project ).

Dutch Carshare Operators in 2014 [1]

Traditional carsharing

CareCar – htpp://www.Carecar.nl

Connectcar – htpp://www.connectcar.nl

Drive – htpp://www.drive.nl

Greenwheels – ht tps://www.greenwheels.nl

Mywheels (part ially t radit ional CS/ part ially P2P) – htpp://mywheels.nl

Studentcar – htpp://studentcar.nl

Zoem – htpp://zoom.nl

Mobilit y-S – ht tp://www.mobilit y-s.nl

Flexcar – ht tp://www.f lexcar.nl/

MobielGedeeld (SharedMobility) – www.mobielgedeeld.nl

P2P

SnappCar – htpp://www.snappcar.nl

Mywheels (part ially t radit ional CS/ part ially P2P) – htpp://mywheels.nl

WeGo – htpp://www.wego.nu/nl

B&B Accountants – ?

Deelauto Zutphen – ht tp://www.deelautozutphen.nl

Toyota Botman – ht tp://www.toyota-botman.nl/

One-way carsharing

Car2Go – ht tps://www.car2go.com/en/amsterdam/

Other

Vereniging Gedeeld Autogebruik (supports private carsharing init iat ives) –ht tp://www.deelauto.nl

Zwolle deelt auto’s- autodelenzwolle.nl (Private carshare Start -up)

Several companies of fering services for company shared cars

[1] Note: Some of these are very small and new. And all the rest evolving rapidly.

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* Excerpted f rom draf t of KpVV/Ecoplan report of 7 April 2014, “Going Dutch: CarshareStrategies for Local Government“. For further informat ion:

KpVV: (Kennisplat form Verkeer en Vervoer –Knowledge Plat form for Mobilit y andTransport ). Supports local and regional authorit ies in their ef fort s to develop andimplement mobilit y and t ransport policy by providing pract ical know-how, developingreports and guidelines, arranging meet ings, and set t ing up networks.

Contact: Friso Metz. Project manager mobilit eit s management . Jaarbeursplein 22, Ut rechtht tp://www.kpvv.nl T +31 (0)30 291 8209. Skype: kkpvmetz

EcoPlan International: An independent advisory network and NGO providing st rategiccounsel for government and indust ry in the areas of economic development , sustainablet ransport and sustainable cit ies. Specializing in the “polit ics of t ransportat ion” andsupported by a dist inguished Internat ional Advisory Council of outstanding f igures in thef ield.

Contact: Eric Brit ton, MD. EcoPlan 9, rue Gabillot , 69003 Lyon Franceht tp://worldst reets.wordpress.com/ T. +336 5088 0787 Skype: newmobilit y

52.091790 5.114570

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