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CARSHARING/
TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
source: Australian Greenhouse Office, “Carsharing: an overview”, Camberra, December 2004.
[ www.greenhouse.gov.au/tdm/
publications/pubs/carsharing-dec
04.pdf]
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Carsharing is one of a number of measures assisting communities to move toward more sustainable urban transport systems… - changing global pressures and a focus on environmental sustainability are key motivators in the development of these approaches. In each of the last three decades, a wave of activity around carsharing has moved the concept and its practice further;
- in the early 1970s two key events added momentum toward carsharing: the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 (where the impacts of development were first discussed in the global arena) and the oil crisis in 1973–74, (now called ‘the first oil shock’). In parallel, carsharing was established in a few European countries, at least partly in response to the global oil crisis but aided by high car costs and low car ownership levels;
- the sustainability debate continued, with one turning point in 1987 when the Brundtland Report (Our Common Future) was published, arising from the UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development (UNCED), and another at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Austria during this period, carsharing grew to be a noticeable part of the mobility services available in some cities;
- it is now proliferating in many other countries, including other European Union countries, and in Canadian, US and Asian cities. The major periods of growth have been in the 1990s, consistent with a renewed focus on sustainable transport policies and the related concept of ‘ecologically sustainable development’. It is worth noting that technological changes such as digital communications and increasing computer portability are also likely to have contributed to this growth.
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