A shared future for all?

The decision by point-to-point car club operator car2go to quit the UK market was not a complete surprise, coming as it did soon after the firm suspended its pioneering operations in London. Nonetheless, it was interesting to hear car2go, which operates schemes in 25 other cities around the world, attribute failure on these shores partly to the UK’s “strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership”. 

Commentators often characterise the UK and United States as more individualistic societies than those of mainland Europe, noting, for instance, differences in attitudes towards things such as property ownership, healthcare, transport, and public space. 

Yet in the UK there is heightened interest in the potential for shared forms of transport to meet travel demand. Bike hire schemes are proliferating, though not all are as popular as London’s. Car clubs are commonplace in cities and spreading to smaller towns too. Again, participation is heavily skewed towards London, where the big firms have focused their activity. And then there is car sharing, a somewhat different form of sharing, because it involves people willingly sharing their own vehicle with others. Car sharing has always operated informally but a number of firms now offer an organised service, with Liftshare, the largest provider, boasting over 600,000 members. 

Car2go has not put its failure entirely down to  cultural factors. It very quickly became frustrated by the fragmented model of governance in the capital, which made it necessary to strike bespoke parking deals with boroughs, creating a very user-unfriendly patchwork of coverage and rules. Perhaps there are other aspects of the point-to-point scheme offering that didn’t suit London or Birmingham where it was also trialled. All eyes will now be on French group Bolloré, which has run the Autolib car scheme in Paris since 2011, and plans to launch a point-to-point scheme in London next year.  

But just how big is the UK’s market for shared transport? If our culture really is different then maybe it will be a struggle to expand beyond those early adopters of bike hire, car clubs and car sharing. But cultural norms can change. Financial pressures facing today’s youngsters are delaying the day when they can afford to buy their first property or first car, so perhaps the shared transport market is growing from the bottom up.

This will be discussed at the ‘Shared transport masterclass’ in Bath on 17 June.