Car clubs are here to stay

摘要

Car2go's failure was a blip, with growing numbers turning to shared transport. The steady expansion of car clubs (and new forms of flexible car sharing) has not reached all parts of Britain - but it is increasingly accepted as part of the sustainable transport mix. If the future of cities is about green and 'smart' mobility, the role of shared transport, acting as a complement to public transport, is now broadly accepted in much of Western Europe and North America. The recent announcement by car2go of its departure from the UK was in many ways a surprise. Car2go, a flexible, one-way 'car-sharing' scheme owned by Daimler, in partnership with Europcar, indicated that they were pulling out as a result of the UK's car culture. "Taking the UK's strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership into account, we have decided to withdraw from the UK market place," they said. But is Britain really more wedded to car ownership than elsewhere in Europe?