People use car sharing regardless of whether they own their own car or not. Sometimes you need a different size vehicle, your own could be in the workshop, or you just want to drive in one direction as an exception. It can also be used as a supplement to public transport or as a substitute for a taxi ride.
If you want to do without your own car altogether, there are even more reasons to use car sharing. You remain flexible and, depending on how often you need a vehicle and which tariff you choose, you can save costs and worries. Now it is also very important to what extent you want and can plan for the future in order to know which car is available, at which time, at which location and at what price.
In any case, a study from Karlsruhe found that between 3% and 16% of people who use car sharing sold their own vehicle, depending on the city in which they live. Furthermore, the purchase of a new vehicle was at least delayed. All in all, this reduces the total number of vehicles in a city, making traffic and vehicle use more efficient.
It is by no means the goal to remove all private vehicles from circulation, but car sharing is the perfect addition, especially in areas with well-developed public transport. It makes it possible for people not to have to rely on their own vehicle and thus reduces the total number of cars that do not participate in flowing traffic.
Free-floating car sharing
With free-floating car sharing, cars are not parked in a dedicated parking lot, but are part of private transport and park on public parking spaces. The exact location of the vehicles is available in an app so that you can search for and use them at short notice and then park them at the desired destination when you have parked somewhere.
The area in which vehicles can be parked is usually limited in order to achieve good coverage of users and cars. In sparsely populated areas, use is often not efficient enough. This area is usually called a business zone.
The advantages of the free-floating model are spontaneous and flexible use. If you need a vehicle, you search for the next available one and drive off. At your destination, you look for a parking space, usually don't even have to worry about short-term parking zones and simply leave the car so that the next person can use it.
Above all, you don't have to know in advance how long you will need the vehicle. When the goal is achieved or the task is completed, the booking is simply completed. Even with free-floating, you can book cars in advance and for a longer period of time with some providers, which guarantees that a vehicle is close to the booked location. However, if you are looking for a vehicle at short notice and none is available, you are unfortunately on your own and must either travel to a location where the next vehicle is parked or look for another solution.
It is also problematic that it should be ensured that vehicles are evenly distributed across the entire business zone. However, hotspots regularly form when, for example, many people drive vehicles into the city center in the morning and then the vehicles are missing on the outskirts of the city, or when an event takes place and people travel there by vehicle but no longer back with car sharing.
The free-floating model also involves increased costs for operators, as the vehicles can be parked at any location within the business area and the inspection and maintenance of the vehicles is therefore more complex. There are also more likely to be conflicts with authorities if the vehicle has not been parked correctly.
Payment is made here for every minute started until the vehicle is released again for other people. The kilometers traveled may also be charged. Economically, this model usually only makes sense in urban areas, where there are potentially many customers who frequently travel short distances and require vehicles at any time and day.
Station-based car sharing
As the name suggests, with station-based car sharing, you can only pick up vehicles from selected stations and must also bring them back to stations. This makes planning easier, as it is always known where the cars are parked. If the car can be returned to another station, you still get some flexibility.
If a particular station is very popular and is booked frequently, this can be quickly identified and more vehicles can be made available at that station. In the same way, if a station is less popular than expected, the number of vehicles there can be reduced.
You usually plan a trip by car in advance, even if it's only a few hours. This gives you the security of knowing where a vehicle needs to be picked up and that it is also safely there. It only becomes difficult when it is difficult or impossible to estimate in advance how long a vehicle will be needed. You either plan too long or notice that the duration is too short and have to hope that the booking can be extended.
The car sharing locations can be combined very well with public transport, so that you can easily get to the stations and continue your journey comfortably after the journey. The big opportunity with station-based car sharing is to have a station in as many different locations as possible. It will be similar to the free-floating model, while maintaining predictability.
Since the vehicles are regularly at a station, this model allows them to be checked more frequently and better for damage.
With this model, you pay for the duration of the booking, which can be booked in different time units depending on the provider, sometimes by the hour, often even by the minute. A number of kilometers is often included, and you pay in addition for each kilometer traveled as soon as the included kilometers are exceeded.
When which model is better
There is now sufficient experience with both models and the results show that different people respond better to one or the other model. While some people clearly prefer spontaneity, for others the exact opposite — namely predictability — is of paramount importance when it comes to car sharing. Although both models offer flexibility, the flexibility of station-based car sharing depends heavily on the respective provider.
Station-based car sharing also has the potential to be used in rural areas. If there is a station at train stations, a booking can be made for the journey home after work until the commute back to work, bridging the last mile. If there is also a station in the center of a village without a train station, this model is very similar to the free-floating model.
A key driver of car sharing is the change in the entire mobility concept. There is an increasing lack of distinction between car trips and public transport. More and more people are deciding individually which means of transport they use to travel a distance — be it by bicycle, on foot, taxi or an e-scooter. The possibilities have expanded significantly in recent years, and the needs and wishes of a wide range of stakeholders can therefore be addressed much better.
