Car Sharing & Public Transport: Teaming Up for Urban Mobility

Car sharing is primarily a private-sector business operating in an area where the state also provides mobility services through traditional public transport as part of its remit to deliver public services and infrastructure. From your perspective and that of your members, how do you view this situation?

Car sharing and public transport complement each other and can benefit from each other. Local authorities and public transport companies view car sharing’s economic viability as an opportunity to expand local mobility services without placing an additional financial burden on the budget.

As an association, you emphasize that car sharing is part of resource-efficient and climate-neutral mobility in close cooperation with other players in the eco-friendly transport network. What role does car sharing play in this?

Car sharing is the automotive component of eco-friendly transport. Households that switch from private cars to car sharing are no longer financially tied to a car. They try out other modes of transport and realize that a car is not the best choice for many journeys.
This benefits climate-friendly alternatives such as buses, trains, and bicycles.

The Mobility in Germany study shows that car sharing households drive much less frequently on average than car-owning households, even though they always have a shared car at their disposal.

Can you give some examples of successful cooperation between car sharing operators and public transport providers? What exactly do these partnerships entail? How do customers experience them in practice?

Car sharing services are available in around 1,400 German cities. Examples of cooperation range from marketing partnerships and the joint development of mobility stations to shared travel information in digital apps. From a customer’s perspective, it is important that car sharing and public transport are easily accessible and readily available.

Our most important common goal is therefore to establish a dense mobility infrastructure consisting of public transport stops, car sharing stations and mobility stations, providing a convenient and cost-effective alternative to private cars.

What are the key factors for successful cooperation between car sharing and public transport companies?

The most important factor is a mutual understanding of each other’s business models. Public transport companies evaluate their own mobility services primarily from the perspective of public service, participation and creating equal living conditions.

While car sharing providers also have these goals, as commercially viable companies they must also ask themselves: How can we at least break even? This difference can lead to different answers to questions such as: What is the goal of expanding our services? Or: How deeply should we integrate into a public transport app?

In good partnerships, partners adapt to these differences.

Can you think of any examples of public transport providers in Germany offering their own car sharing services? What distinguishes these services?

There are a few, but not that many. Most of them operate in areas where car sharing would not be economically viable in isolation. If you cannot order the service from a car sharing provider, you have to set it up yourself. This is more common in rural areas and small communities, where municipal utilities also operate car sharing services.

In most larger cities, there is no need for a separate car sharing subsidiary because private car sharing providers are already active there. Augsburg, Ulm and Leverkusen are among the few larger cities where a public company also offers car sharing. These services are no different to those offered by private providers.

As an association, you emphasize that car sharing is particularly effective in regions with well-developed public transport systems. What role does car sharing play in rural areas, where public transport systems are less developed?

Car sharing can work anywhere. That is also our position as an association. There are excellent car sharing services in villages of 500 inhabitants with no bus connections. However, our position as an association is that car sharing only realizes its full traffic and environmental benefits where there is a well-developed public transport system and good cycling infrastructure. This is because car sharing is intended to replace car journeys with bicycle and public transport journeys. But how can this shift occur if public transport services are poor and cycling is unattractive?

In such cases, car sharing can still exist, but it mainly ensures that participating households replace second and third cars with car sharing. While this is positive, it does not achieve the full transport and climate policy benefits that car sharing can deliver. Therefore, car sharing only achieves its full effect when other eco-friendly modes of transport are readily available and easy to use. Then they complement each other perfectly.

In terms of resource conservation and climate neutrality, what potential do you see for optimizing and further developing the interaction between car sharing and public transport?

Multimodal mobility like combining public transportation, bicycles, and car sharing is superior to monomodal car transportation in terms of energy consumption, land use, and often, costs for users. The multimodal mobility industry should emphasize this repeatedly.

In order to ensure a seamless integration into users’ everyday lives and inspire enthusiasm among new users, we must collaborate to complete our operational tasks. We currently view multimodal apps as a key area for optimization. The car sharing business model requires rapid responses to user needs and full digitalization behind the scenes.

Public transportation tends to change more slowly because many aspects are planned and agreed upon long term. The different speeds of digital integration into shared apps sometimes lead to conflicts. That is why, as an association for multimodal apps, we recommend “flat full integration.” This approach makes the car sharing product visible in public transport apps without any loss of quality. However, the core processes essential for user satisfaction remain in the specialized car sharing app.

This approach is pragmatic, cost-effective, and sustainable. Unfortunately, we have observed that many deeply integrated apps become obsolete or must be discontinued due to high update costs. From a customer’s perspective, flat full integration ensures a more reliable service.

What forms of cooperation and ideas would you like to see in the future?

The goal is to offer a better alternative to private cars that is more convenient, cost-effective, and climate-friendly. Good local availability is the most important factor for success. Local authorities, public transportation companies, and car sharing providers must work closely together to set up car sharing and mobility stations in public spaces. Many places have now developed well-established processes for this purpose, and it works particularly well in Dresden and Darmstadt, for example.

Car sharing and public transportation companies should also collaborate closely to develop digital multimodal apps. There is further potential for greater efficiency through the standardization of interfaces and integration levels.

We foresee joint multimodal mobility budgets for companies, as well as the establishment of joint control centers for autonomous and teleoperated driving, as future topics.

Thank you, Gunnar, for the interview and valuable insights on the partnership between Car Sharing and Public Transport!

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