At the beginning of each new year the New Mobility Agenda invites 
the approximately two thousand individuals and groups from more than seventy nations on all continents who log into our dozen-plus focus sites to share overviews of the "state of the nation" in their particular area of interest and activity. This year we start with carsharing.
The following update note and invitation sent on Monday of this week to the almost five hundred members of the World Carshare Consortium, has set off the annual country updates on carsharing that will this year for the first time be published on World Streets. Over the course of the coming weeks, we shall be presenting their reports in these pages. You will see: 2009 was a great year for carsharing, and 2010 is going to be even better.
Carsharing: the last nail in the coffin of old mobility.
Contents: 1. Progress report - 2009
2. Countries and cities consulting WCS in 2009
3. The carshare/city/national government interface - Joint projects?
4. Carsharing and World Streets:
5. It's your forum – Do your bit
6. PS. Two questions for your attention
7. Annex: Countries and Cities consulting World Carshare in the last days
8. Want more on carsharing around the world?
1. 2009 State of World Carshare - Progress report:
2009 was the eleventh consecutive year of the World Carshare Consortium. Hurrah for continuity in a start and stop world.
Though I was somewhat disappointed to find that World Carshare was not nearly as lively and useful to you all in this last year as one might have hoped. I trust we shall be able to do better in 2010. In any event your can count on us to try.
We had received like 350 messages to the group over the year, one a day on averages, and have been host to close to 500 members, including a good number of the people who know more about how to make a carshare operation work than anyone on the planet. But it was precious hard to get anything out of most of you – which I guess is not altogether a bad sign, since I take it to mean that you were too busy running your operations to ask or deal with the more general, often strategic questions that are close at least to my heart and vision of things.
There is in fact more consultation than communication in our group, with close to ten thousand people checking in over the year, Here for example is a map showing the contacts over the last several days. The basic pattern is one we have seen here over the years, but there is some indication of spread of interest beyond the now traditional OECD region. 
2. The carshare/city/national government interface - Joint projects?
The years pass but this is still in my view the weak link – the great unasked questions of carsharing. Our better and best carshare operators have now gleaned enough experience, have enough good examples to be able to plan, operate and of maintain viable accounts. That's no longer the question.
The following chart taken from Adam Millard-Ball's TRB report "Carsharing: Where and How It Succeeds" is worth taking out for a spin with since it reminds us of some of the apsects of this complex interface.
The big deal though is that even after a decade of carsharing that works most of our cities still fail to understand how carsharing fits into the larger whole of the sustainable transport strategy. We need more work, better references, clearer guidelines and examples of best practices to stimulate wider public policies in this area. I very much hope that we will find a way at least to follow and possibly to contribute to this in the year ahead.
I personally am interested in team or personal advisory and consulting assignments with both carshare operators and the respective public sector originations and agencies, both at the city and the national level. So if you have an idea or a project we might discuss , don't be shy, get in touch. And if I am not the person best suited to do the job, ask and I can make my best recommendations.
3. Carsharing and World Streets:
We started World Streets over this last year with the idea in mind that it would serve as a place to share with a much broader range of readers some of what is going on at the leading edge and most important for the success and contribution of carsharing, and of course the other areas that together constitute the New Mobility Agenda. if you click to http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/search/label/carshare you will see that we were able to post more than twenty I think rather interesting articles treating carshare developments in a number of countries as well as worldwide.
But to do a better job in 2010 we need more contributions, a bit more liveliness on the part of our members here (ahem!). It is not of course useful simply to publish a feature article around one more plain vanilla carshare operation, or some announcements of great stuff to follow. But our readers do want to hear about the innovations, the new ideas, the new cities, the problems, the barriers, and the outstanding examples that other cites, countries and operators can give some thought to. I hope we shall hear from you on this in the year ahead. After all, it is a collaborative program.
4. Support World Carshare and World Streets - 2010:
You may be aware that since World Carshare first cranked up in 1998, it has been totally financed by the person who is signing this letter. With from time to time a little help from our friends.
A handful of you have been kind enough to make contributions to World Streets to keep all this work going over 2009, ranging from $50 to $500. 2010 is going to be the year in which we either get the support on the scale we need, from public and private sector, or we will simply be unable to continue to serve you. So kindly take a bit of time as this new year starts up to give a careful read to the attached
Here in closing are four things I would like to ask you to have a look at before making up you mind on this. 1. Our four page/four minute summary which you can click to here - http://tinyurl.com/ws-4-4sum
That's it carsharers. I really hope you have taken the time to read
2. A synopsis of 101 comments that we have received from expert readers worldwide, at http://tinyurl.com/ws-101
3. Our outline work program for 2010 – at http://tinyurl.com/ws-2010b
4. And finally, our background note for supporters and contributors – at http://tinyurl.com/ws-support2 
this, and that you will at the very least let me have your reactions. It's great to put our shoulders behind a good idea like carsharing, but better yet when we have someone to help push.
Eric Britton
Editor
PS. Two concrete, I think rather important questions for your attention in closing: a. Street safety for others: Is carsharing less dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists than own-car driving – in terms of deaths, injuries and accidents? - Please share with us your numbers and reports on this.
b. Accidents: Do carshare drivers have fewer accidents than own-car drivers?
If we know these two things for sure we know something very important and very useful.
Annex: Countries and Cities consulting World Carshare
Here's a list of the countries that have checked in over the last two months to our home page at www.worldcarshare.com. They are listed here in the order of the number of contacts over the period. Pretty much what one might expect, though one might take note of Qatar and the Emirates. In any event, we can see from it that things are not standing altogether still. (I have bolded those countries where memory serves me currently have operating carshare services. If I have this wrong in any way I count on you of set me right.)
1. United States
2. Canada
3. Qatar
4. United Kingdom
5. France
6. Germany
7. Spain
8. Australia
9. Japan
10. Switzerland
11. Ireland
12. Poland
13. India
14. United Arab Emirates
15. Czech Republic
16. Portugal
17. Luxembourg
18. Sweden
19. Austria
20. China
21. Argentina
22. Israel
23. Brazil
24. Belgium
25. Italy
26. Bahrain
27. Chile
28. Europe
29. South Africa
30. Russian Federation
31. Korea, Republic Of
32. Finland
33. Netherlands
34. Turkey
35. Malaysia
36. Romania
37. Greece
38. Denmark
39. New Zealand
40. Morocco
41. Egypt
Annex B. Consulting cities:
The list of cities checking in is no less fascinating. Here you have the latest in order of number of consultations, from high (Doha in Qatar??? ) to low. Again what fascinates me is to think about those cities that do not yet have carsharing but are apparently giving thought to it. Looks like 2010 is gong to be a very big year for carsharing.
2. Doha
3. Montreal
4. Paris
5. London
6. Madrid
7. Chicago
8. Englishtown
9. Aberdeen
10. Sydney
11. Zürich
12. Dublin
13. Dubai
14. Madras
15. Miami
16. Hamburg
17. Calgary
18. Szczecin
19. Vancouver
20. Quebec
21. Leesburg
22. Burlington
23. Westminster
24. Winnipeg
25. Rottweil
26. Beijing
27. Buenos Aires
28. Rochester
29. Toronto
30. New York
31. Stockholm
32. Moscow
33. Springfield
34. Louth
35. Albany
36. Cambridge
37. Durham
38. Bexley
39. Saint-Leu-La-Forêt
40. Graz
41. Lisboa
42. Eugene
43. Brockville
44. Dortmund
45. Santiago
46. Asan
47. Ostrava
48. Zaragoza
49. Prague
50. Hyderabad
51. Yehud
52. Uetersen
53. Osaka
54. Fortuna
55. Istanbul
56. Boulder
57. Brooklyn
58. San Pablo
59. São Paulo
60. Barnsley
61. Sheboygan
62. North Vancouver
63. Brussels
64. Bloomington
65. Oviedo
66. Turin
67. Bremen
68. Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux
69. Salem
70. Helsinki
71. Kingston
72. Berlin
73. Johannesburg
74. Warsaw
75. Ubobo
76. Melbourne
77. Barcelona
78. Littleton
79. Darmstadt
80. Ashburn
81. Coimbra
82. Choszczno
83. Richmond
84. Saint Petersburg
85. Poznan
86. Nogent-sur-marne
87. Cape Town
88. Birmensdorf
89. Entroncamento
90. Rutledge
91. Frankfurt Am Main
92. Yarramalong
93. Cannes
94. Reading
95. Bucharest
96. Colorado Springs
97. Leipzig
98. Lansing
99. Beaumont
100. Vienna
101. San Jose
102. Guyancourt
103. Ipswich
104. Porsel
105. Savyon
106. Iráklion
107. Atlanta
108. Venice
109. Victoriaville
110. Beverly Hills
111. Pincourt
112. Cairo
113. Lisbon
114. Albuquerque
115. Athens
116. Mountain View
117. Sheffield
118. Lausanne
119. Dudley
120. Sugar Land
121. Beenleigh
122. Canberra
123. Hägersten
124. Kuala Lumpur
125. Rennes
126. Lévis
127. Saint-jérôme
128. Las Vegas
129. Ossining
130. Trévoux
131. Kirkland
132. Saint-Germain-En-Laye
133. Ålborg
134. Victoria
135. Perth
136. Kanata
137. Stamford
138. Marbella
139. Waiblingen
140. Strasbourg
141. Hutto
142. Halifax
143. Gladwyne
144. Lincent
145. Davidson
146. Ahmadabad
147. Saint-hubert
148. Austin
149. Archamps
150. Cary
151. Ketchum
152. Auckland
153. Munich
154. Meudon
155. Los Angeles
156. Glenview Nas
157. Den Haag
158. Aachen
159. Stuttgart
160. Roselle
161. Rio De Janeiro
162. Buffalo
163. Lubin
164. Oakland
165. Göteborg
166. Denver
167. Casablanca
168. Tel Aviv
169. Amsterdam
170. Crofton
171. Le Mans
172. San Antonio
173. Boston
174. Tarpon Springs
175. Valbonne
What lessons in this other than that at least the curiosity is wide spread? (Though we also know that many of these cities already have carshare operations working on their streets.)
# # #
Want more on carsharing around the world?
No problem. Get comfortable, pour yourself a cup of coffee and take a bit of time to investigate . . .
1. All World Streets articles on carsharing – http://tinyurl.com/ws-carsharing
2. The World Carshare Consortium at http://www.worldcarshare.com
3. Search World Carshare's member forum - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WorldCarShare/messages (You have to be a member of the forum to make this work, but that's no problem. Just send a quick email to the editor here – editor@worldstreets.org and it will be done.)
4. Finally check out our rather huge, tightly focused New Mobility Knowledge Base (http://www.Knoogle.net on carsharing world-wide at http://tinyurl.com/kn-carshare. (Careful here: this will call up more than 500 references so you may want to think about narrowing your search to a country, city, supplier, whatever. For that drop to the bottom of the page and try "Search within results". You'll see.)
As you will quickly see this is an existing, fast-developing and thoroughly 
practical transportation innovation that is ready to go. It is a key component of the path to sustainable transport, sustainable cities and sustainable lives.
We can do it.
The Editor
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews:
Carsharing: The last nail in the coffin of old mobility.
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Hi Eric,
ReplyDeleteFor our kind of car sharing (liftsharing or ridesharing) it does have a big impact…
https://www.liftshare.com/news.asp?ns=41&tb=g
Ali Clabburn | Founder and Managing Director | liftshare
Text of above indicated article on "Car Sharing Can Reduce the Risk of Road Accidents".
ReplyDeleteSharing a car journey with work colleagues, friends or family could help the nation's drivers stay safe on the roads, according to new research from Privilege Insurance.
Motorists carrying passengers are half as likely to be involved in an accident than those driving solo, the research reveals. One in ten drivers say they have been involved in an accident when driving alone, compared to just one in twenty who were driving with a passenger.
And it is not just accidents that are reduced by driving with a passenger, it seems. Four in ten motorists (39 per cent) have lost concentration while driving, but only two in ten (22 per cent) have done so when driving with a passenger. One in five drivers have been pulled over by the police when driving alone due to the poor quality of their driving, compared to just nine per cent who have been pulled over when driving with someone else in the car.
More than one in twenty British motorists (six per cent) currently have a car pool arrangement in place for their drive to work, according to Privilege's findings. By the end of the 2006, over four million drivers expect to be sharing car journeys on a regular basis (12 per cent), and by 2010 this will increase to nearer six million (17 per cent).
However, one in five drivers (21 per cent) believe they would be more likely to car pool if special lanes were introduced. Just under half (48 per cent) of all drivers surveyed by Privilege support the introduction of car pool lanes on key commuter routes. And among those who support such plans, three quarters (76 per cent) would like to see car pool lanes combined with existing or new bus lanes.
Philip Igoe, Director of Car Plus, a national car sharing charity, commented on Privilege's research:
"Car pooling is easy on the pocket and kind on the environment. In addition, Privilege's new research suggests that sharing a journey may also reduce the risk of accidents.
"Given the many benefits of car sharing, drivers should perhaps be asking themselves; 'do we really need to drive alone?'"
Ian Parker, Managing Director of Privilege Insurance, said:
"Privilege's research demonstrates the potential road safety benefits of car sharing. Each year thousands of people are killed on our roads and tens of thousands more are seriously injured. If car pooling or sharing journeys encourages safer driving, then that should be sufficient justification to prompt drivers into rethinking their car use habits."
Leaders in the field of UK car pooling with 99,000 members, www.liftshare.com have welcomed this research and hope that it will encourage more people to give car sharing a try. liftshare’s Managing Director, Ali Clabburn said:
“We welcome any new research which advocates the benefits of car sharing. We already knew that some of our members, especially women, feel safer sharing a car and not walking on their own to their car at night. This research suggests that there are further and very significant safety benefits to sharing a car.
By lift-sharing, our average member saves over a £1000 a year on their travel costs, reduces CO2 emissions by over 1 tonne a year, does their bit to cut congestion and now also helps to improve road safety.