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Public mobility stations providing municipal leverage for the transport transformation
Overview
Everyone who travels by car shares the roads. Why not share the vehicles as well? This is what the 'Car Sharing Action Plan for Bremen' has been supporting since 2009. Using public mobility stations (also known as 'mobil.punkte'), car sharing is integrated into intermodal and multimodal mobility networks that include the other modes of transport available, particularly buses and trains. Anyone choosing to make part of their journey by bike will find metal racks to park their bike. Car sharing reduces both the need for car parking spaces and the volume of traffic. This helps to keep the air clean, reduce noise and protect the environment – in short: it improves the quality of life in the mobile city.
Background
Since the 1990s, Bremen has been leading the way in station-based car sharing. Ökostadt Bremen e.V. (the city’s sustainable mobility association) led to the emergence of cambio, one of today's largest car-sharing companies.
Bremen has a population of about 557,000. More than 14,000 of them share cars, which are provided by three companies. This saves space in the city, which is in short supply – especially for parking. Cars usually just stand around – the statistical average is 23 hours a day. In the city's often narrow streets, masses of parked cars impede the flow of traffic, which is also a problem for the growing number of delivery services. Often it is difficult to get through by bike or on foot – and with a walking frame, a wheelchair or a pram it is virtually impossible. Refuse collection vehicles, fire engines and ambulances get stuck.
Bremen's car-sharing model gets many cars off the streets – 80 per cent of cambio's customers in Bremen do not own a car of their own. One reason this pays off for them, provided they do not need to travel more than about 10-12,000 km a year, is because they then have no running costs. People who use car sharing no longer have to worry about space to park, and always have the right vehicle to hand – which can sometimes mean a transporter or a minibus.
Objectives
Fewer traffic jams, less noise and less atmospheric pollution – Bremen intends to tackle the problems associated with traffic congestion. People who rely on car sharing are more mobility-conscious. They are more likely to walk, use their bike, or catch a bus or a train. One reason is that they find it more difficult to forget about the high costs of using a car. Bremen intends to make more appropriate use of the public space that this frees up. The 'Bremen 2020' master plan envisions the city becoming an attractive and innovative economic zone that also includes vibrant districts offering a high quality of life. By 2020, the city plans to reduce the number of cars by 6,000 by offering multimodal solutions.
Activities
The Car Sharing Action Plan is based on Bremen's Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) 2025, which the municipality developed together with its citizens. Under the plan Bremen intends to develop links with the public transport system and further raise public awareness of these options. Car-sharing stations will be marked on route maps. The plan also envisages private companies and public institutions switching to car sharing. To raise awareness Bremen is using its car sharing mascot Udo, whose name spells 'Use it. Don’t own it'.
Where car sharing was concerned, Germany's Federal Government had been keeping its foot on the brake for a long time. The lack of a legal framework meant that municipalities were left in a situation of uncertainty. The good example set by Bremen finally prompted Germany's 'Car Sharing Act (CsgG)'. Following a tough battle, this came into force in 2017. Furthermore, Bremen also suggested certifying eco-friendly car-sharing companies with the 'Blue Angel' ecolabel – to demonstrate the benefits they offer to the public at large.
Effects
Today, e-vehicles are used in car sharing a hundred times more often than in normal driving. Car sharing thus promotes electro-mobility. Bremen makes sure that the electricity used is sourced from renewables.
In Bremen, one car-sharing vehicle replaces 15 private cars. This has already resulted in a cut of 4,500 in vehicle numbers, and the figure is rising. If garage spaces had been built instead, this would have cost an estimated 70-100 million euros, as well as swallowing up scarce space. Savings of this kind are also benefiting the private real estate industry.
A car-sharing station can reduce the costly regulations requiring the construction of parking space. Underground car parks can easily account for 10 to 15% of housing construction costs. Car sharing is therefore an important though often overlooked factor underpinning low-cost housing construction and affordable rents. Large car manufacturers now also offer car sharing.
The market is growing fast, and steadily. If in the future vehicles drive and pick up passengers autonomously, owning your own car will lose its practical benefits. Car sharing is a visible sign of a modern city in digital transformation.
Conclusions
Car sharing which is integrated into multimodal mobility networks will help reduce urban car traffic. It will mean a 200 to 290 kg reduction in CO2 emissions per user. Switching to travel by bus, train and bike is being promoted as a simple and economical solution to traffic problems.
Bremen's car-sharing offensive has attracted external funding, and prompted many international projects. After Bremen was invited to present its car-sharing programme at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, the GIZ had 'the eight treasures of promoting municipal car sharing' in Bremen translated into Chinese. In the gridlocked metropolises of the Global South, car sharing can become an important component of mobility management.
Bremen's engagement has since won it many awards – including the German Sustainable Mobility Award. It has also received awards from Germany's Federal Construction Ministry, two from the EU, and one from the German Automobile Club (ADAC). More protection for the climate and the improvement, a better quality of life, improved urban planning – all good reasons why we keep hearing 'and the winner is... Bremen'.
More information
http://mobilpunkt-bremen.de/assets/uploads/2015/09/aktionplan_carsharing.pdf
https://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/projects/en/projects/momo-car-sharing
Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur (Hrsg., 2016), Elektromobilität im Carsharing: Status quo, Potenziale und Erfolgsfaktoren: www.xn--starterset-elektromobilitt-4hc.de/Infothek/Publikationen/elektromobilitaet-im-carsharing-staus-quo-potenziale-und-erfolgsfaktoren/now_handbuch_e-carsharing_web_2.ueberarb.aufl.pdf
Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur (Hrsg., 2016), Handlungsleitfaden Elektromobilität in Kommunen: www.xn--starterset-elektromobilitt-4hc.de/Infothek/Publikationen/elektromobilitaet-in-kommunen-handlungsleitfaden/elektromobilitaet_in_kommunen_-_handlungsleitfaden.pdf
Müller, Rau, Vogel (2014), Carsharing – neue Herausforderungen für Kommunen und Landkreise. In: Raumplanung (IfR), Heft 2-2014, S. 42-48: www.ifr-ev.de/raumplanung
Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung (BBSR 2016), Neue Mobilitätsformen, Mobilitätsstationen und Stadtgestalt: www.plan-werkstadt.de/PDF-Dateien/BBSR_Sonderpublikation_Neue_Mobilitaetsformen_final.pdf
Published: 28/03/2018
Contact
michael.glotz-richter@umwelt.bremen.de
Michael Glotz-Richter
Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
The Senator for Environment, Construction, Transport and European Affairs
Contrescarpe 72
28195 Bremen
Germany
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Categories:
Integrated urban development
Sustainable mobility
Public space
Cities and climate change
Regions:
Europe
Germany
Bremen
