Benefits of Car Sharing

While Charter Drive attracts customers because of its convenience, flexibility, and economy, the service also produces high social returns.

Our current transportation system and our lives are so dependant on cars, that we assume it’s the way it has to be. We take for granted the amount of precious space consumed by, the noise generated by and the pollution caused by cars. Not to mention the horrific traffic congestion plaguing our cities resulting in additional billions of dollars spent every year on road and highway construction and maintenance - often to the exclusion of investment in public transportation.

Cars also are expensive to own and operate, especially for people with moderate incomes. Car sharing reduces the individual and the societal costs of driving and can play an important role in developing and maintaining a sustainable transport network.

Reduced Driving

Car sharing is one of the only tools with the potential to reduce car ownership and car usage by a significant amount – without causing economic or social pain. Reduced driving has multiple benefits, including less road congestion and pollution.

There is extensive research that demonstrates the following positive impacts of Car Sharing:

• Each shared car eliminates 7-10 cars from our roads.
• Previous car owners drive less after joining a car sharing service.
• Members increase the amount they walk by up to 25%. They also walk and cycle more.
• Members use public transport more.

Reduced Traffic Congestion

Sydney and Melbourne both suffer from severe congestion, with drivers spending a disproportionate amount of time in their cars. The hard costs of congestion run into the multiple billions of dollars, but the social effects (more stress, less family time) are harder to quantify and more detrimental over the long term.

Less spent on private transport

Owning a car has been perceived as a necessary evil for many businesses and individuals – until recently, there was just no convenient private transport alternative for those needing a car. With car sharing filling the ‘mobility gap’, all the onerous fixed costs of owning are eliminated and instead members now pay for what they use. Therefore, those individuals driving less than 15,000 kms per year will generally save with car sharing – the less they drove previously, the more they’re likely to save.

Promotes active living and healthy communities

Car sharing encourages walking because it “imposes some scheduling and accessibility constraints¹” and it externalises the real incremental costs associated with transportation choice. One might add that car sharing membership brings to the surface the incremental benefits of transportation choice including personal health benefits. While the personal savings and environmental benefits of car sharing are well documented, the personal health benefits, in the form of increased levels of walking and cycling, have been less fully explored. Thirty minutes of physical activity, such as brisk walking, on most days of the week is recommended to protect health of the average adult. The evidence suggests that an important benefit of car sharing is its facilitation of this minimum health recommendation.

Car Sharing in a sustainable transport system
 


Source: Dr Chloe Mason and Paul Reichman

¹ Source: iGo