Utrecht the frontrunner in car sharing in the Netherlands
The Dutch Transport Knowledge Resource Centre has identified Utrecht as the city with the third most shared cars, after Amsterdam and Diemen. The promotion of car-sharing is one of Utrecht's most successful measures within CIVITAS MIMOSA. The Netherlands has seen an increase of 17% per year in car-sharing and over 120 municipalities now have some form of car-sharing.
Car-sharing is extremely popular in larger Dutch cities like Utrecht. The Transport Knowledge Resource Centre estimates that there will be around 7,300 shared cars in the Netherlands by 2020. If the national government brings in programmes to stimulate car sharing, this number could grow to 12,300. The Dutch car sharing market is headed up by Greenwheels, Connectcar and Wheels4all. Smaller and newly to the market providers are Drive Carsharing and StudentCar. Car2Go, the electric smart car, is a new arrival to the market, supplied by car manufacturer Daimler. Based on the bike sharing systems found in London and Paris, people in Amsterdam will be able to access upto 300 smart electric cars. A recent development is peer-to-peer car sharing, developed in the USA where car owners can share their car with others when they have no need for it themselves. This way, a car owner can earn some money. WeGo and MyWheels will start this concept in the Netherlands this year. In Utrecht, a detailed "life style analysis" was carried out based on a survey among 1,040 respondents. As a result, a promotional campaign for the most appropriate target groups is being implemented now, with the aim of raising awareness on car sharing, removing prejudices and increasing the amount of shared cars. CIVITAS MIMOSA will present more details on Utrecht's car sharing behaviour change survey work at the CIVITAS MIMOSA Forum at Funchal in 2011.
Author: Marijn Kik
