Green Deal mobility in rural areas

Breaking news – Half of residents in rural areas sees a future in carsharing  

One out of two people thinks it’s feasible for themselves to be in some form of carsharing scheme within this to five year. This is a surprising outcome of the questionnaire in the context of the Green Deal Share Mobility project launched by KVLV, Vrouwen met vaart, Autodelen.net and the Antwerp Management school and answered by more than 150 residents in rural areas.

This is what the respondents said…

Carsharing is often associated with an urban context, though there is quite some potential at the countryside as well. The survey shows that this potential has been severely underused until now. It shows that 97% of the people questioned already have heard about carsharing, but that they mostly know a Cambio carsharing subscription. Moreover, 65% does not know the principle of carsharing among peers yet. Johannes Rodenbach from Autodelen.net believes that’s exactly within this that lies the possibilities for the countryside, and especially for the second car of a family.

Unknown does not necessarily mean disliked. 50% of residents in the country side see a form of carsharing scheme within now and 5 years realistic, a scheme in which more people opt to become a user than share their own car. One out of 3 respondents indicates that ‘an overview of car “providers” in their neighbourhood’ would convince them to become a user of someone else’s car. The other way round, almost 30% would share their (second) car if someone from the neighbourhood would show concrete interest.

At this moment this potential ‘match’ is not yet made. KVLV and Autodelen.net believe there is an important role for local governments to be fulfilled. Municipalities could question their residents under conditional form whether there is an interest to share their own car or to make regular use of someone else’s car. By mapping the data afterwards and communicate this again to the citizens, they could really put things into motion – according to Lotte Van Boxem from KVLV.

Small steps to take for big results

Municipalities that share their own carpark after office hours with residents could count on the interest of almost half of the respondents. In addition carsharing will gain more visibility in the municipality and it motivates the residents that the municipality itself also takes concrete action.

One out of five residents would use a car with beneficiary driver. To avoid transport poverty in the country side, this could offer a possible solution.

Better air quality is a question that you associate with an urban population, but yet residents in rural areas still give this as important positive effect of carsharing.

The mentality change is setting in, that’s for sure. There are lots of residents in rural areas that only need a little push in the back to start taking those first exploratory steps in the world of carsharing. Afterwards the rest will follow for sure.