The Innovation Target Area in Brief

What is it? Car sharing is an alternative system of motor car ownership, access and use, presently undergoing rapid development in and around cities in the richer countries of the world, but by no means limited to that.

Click to see how carsharing works

Think of it as a highly flexible car rental arrangement for participants, which today is provided in a wide range of organizations and service types. If you live in a city, and if you drive less than 10,000 kilometers a year. . . you should probably consider carsharing.

What's the problem? (Opportunity ?) There are on the order of 800 million motor vehicles in the world, a lot of them privately owned and operated cars in cities. Most of these cars spend a lot of time not going anywhere and when they do jamming the city streets and costing their owners a lot of time and money that could in many cases better be spent for other things. There is an option. But this option, this new way of owning and using cars has huge implications not only for individual users and the cities they live in, but also for the motor vehicle industry and its extensions (vehicle ownership and finance packages, rental and leasing, etc.).

What's going on: Now, unless you happen to have dug into the topic or already are a daily user of a carshare organization, the concept of vehicle sharing may sound like one more marginal phenomenon.

Click for World Carshare Inventory

Nothing could be further from the truth. Carsharing is part of an on-going process of the much needed, massive structural transformation of the transport sector. It contains many germs of the very future that lies ahead. Today there are hundreds of carsharing operations in as many cities around the world, with new services coming on line weekly. Moreover, as experience accumulates and new players come in, the technology, economics and performance profile of the best of these services is moving ahead fast.

Future Potential: After decades of trials, experimentation, preparations, and slowly growing use, the carshare idea is now beginning catch on. The growth and market potential of this sector is enormous, and can be expected to move into a situation characterized by millions of vehicles in service in thousands of cities within the next few years. People, businesses and governments can either wait for all this to happen and in the process lose time and opportunities for early and fruitful conversion, or work with us to get a jump on the process and gain the advantages that accrue to early adapters.

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  Where to go for more?

With the help of a collection of a growing network of hundreds of

Click for World CarShare Consortium

colleagues and sources world wide, I have been leading a world wide watching brief in this area for more than a decade, and in 1997 created the World CarShare Consortium, which you can today visit on the Web at http://www.worldcarshare.com.

World CarShare is the leading world source of information, insight, expertise and collaboration on developments in the sector, with hundreds of the leading projects and experts actively participating in our network.

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  What Next

We live in a world in which a couple of hundred million cars are currently being excessively poorly used and at very high cost to both individuals and to society. Economics and technology are going to be the major motors for change in the year immediately ahead, reinforced by the increasing commitment of government to more sustainable cities and environmental considerations. This is the opportunity area for those who are ready to understand and seize it. And will surely be a problem for those in a state of denial.

• There is an important task of maintaining and extending our open world wide database, and continuing to coordinate and support these projects world wide.

• In parallel with this, there is an opportunity to continue to survey these developments and all the work that is being carried out around them, which permits one to have a good feel for where the sector is going in general and what might be some of the most salient opportunities that are opening up.

• There may be -- no, there will be -- a number of opportunities to develop new services and support packages, and eventually to create some more structured forms of interaction and cooperation between these hundreds of disparate activities in cities all over the world. (This being on of the major targets of the World Carshare Consortium.)

• There is an important opportunity area involving creative interactions with those at the leading edge of the motor vehicle, rental and finance industry groups that want to get a jump on this new market and turn it into an opportunity as opposed to a problem that will otherwise and for sure sneak up on them and begin inevitably to eat into their sales and profits.

These are the sorts of things that I intend to continue to give close attention to in the remaining years of this decade. Which will be the period in which carsharing really takes off!

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  In 2004 you can carshare any day in . . .

Aachen * Aarau * Aarhus * Adiswil * Adligenswil * Aesch * Affoltern a.A. * Allschwil * Alpnach * Altdorf * Altstatten * Amriswil * Amsterdam Zuid * Andelfingen * Andermatt * Appenzell * Arbon * Arnstadt * Arth-Goldau * Baretswil * Boblingen * Bulach * Baar * Bad Homburg * Bad Ragaz * Bad Sackingen * Bad Schwartau * Bad Vilbel * Baden * Basel * Bassersdorf * Bauma * Bayreuth * Bellinzona * Belp * Bergdietikon * Bergen * Bergisch Gladbach * Bergsjöns * Berikon * Berlin * Bermgarten * Bern * Beromunster * Biberach * Biel * Bielefeld * Binningen * Birsfelden * Bochum * Bolligen * Bonn * Bonstetten * Bordesholm * Boston * Bottmingen * Boulder * Braunschweig * Bremen * Bremerhaven * Bremgarten * Brig * Brønshøj * Brugg * Brugg Weiermatt * Bubikon * Buchholz * Buchs * Buochs * Burgdorf * Colbe * Calgary * Carouge * Castrop-Rauxel * Celle * Checirc;ne-Bourg * Cham * Chur * Coburg * Copenhagen * Corburg * Cottbus * Cranfield * Dubendorf * Dudingen * Duren * Durnten * Dusseldorf * Dachau * Darmstadt * Davos * Degersheim * Den Haag * Dessau * Dielsdorf * Dietikon * Domat/Ems * Dordrecht * Dornach-Arlesheim * Dortmund * Dossenheim * Dresden * Duisburg * Düsseldorf * Ebikon * Ebnat-Kappel * Ecublens * Edinburgh * Effretikon * Eglisau * Einsiedeln * Elgg * Elmshorn * Emmen * Emmenbrucke * Enzingen * Eppstein * Erfurt * Erlangen * Erstfeld * Esbjerg * Essen * Esslingen * Esslingen * Ettlingen * Eutin * Fallanden * Furth * Farum * Faulensee * Fellbach * Filderstadt * Flawil * Florence * Fort Collins * Frankfurt/M * Frauenfeld * Freising * Frenkendorf * Fribourg * Frick * Frutigen * Gegrave;neve * Gottingen * Garching * Gauting * Gebenstorf * Gelsenkirchen * Gelterkinden * Gevelsberg * Gieszlig;en * Gipf-Oberfrick * Giswil * Goldach * Gossau SG * Göttingen * Grafelfing * Grut * Grabs * Grenchen * Greven * Gstaad * Guelph * Huckelhoven * Haarlem * Hagen * Halberstadt * Halle * Hamburg * Hameln * Hanau * Hannover * Hannover * Hausen am Albis * Hedingen * Heerbrugg * Heidelberg * Heidenheim * Heimenschwand * Helsinki * Herbrechtingen * Herdecke * Herisau * Herning * Herrliberg-Feldmeile * Herzogenbuchsee * Heuchelheim * Hildesheim * Hinwil * Hisingens * Hitzkirch * Hochdorf * Hofheim * Holzwickede * Hombrechtikon * Horgen * Horw * Ilanz * Illnau * Ingolstadt * Interlaken * Iserlohn * Ittigen * Jena * Jona * Koln * Koniz * Kusnacht * Kussnacht * Kalmar * Karlsruhe * Karlstads * Kassel * Kempten * Kiel * Kingston * Kirchheim/Teck * Kitch.Waterloo * Klosters * Kloten * Koblenz * Konolfingen * Konstanz * Kreuzlingen * Kriens * Lorrach * Lubeck * Ludenscheid * Luneburg * La Chaux-de Fonds * Laatzen * Lachen * Landquart * Landshut * Langen * Langenfeld * Langenhagen * Langenthal * Langnau * Laufen * Lausanne * Lausen * Lehrte * Leipzig * Lenzburg * Leverkusen * Lichtensteig * Liestal * Ligerz/Twann * Lilienthal * Littau * Locarno * Ludwigsburg * Ludwigshafen * Lugano * Luzern * Lyss * Mannedorf * Mohlin * Monchaltorf * Mulheim/Ruhr * Munchen * Munchenbuchsee * Munchsteinach * Munsingen * Munster * Magdeburg * Magden * Mainz * Majornas * Mannheim * Marburg * Marl * Meggen * Meilen * Memmingen * Merseburg * Mettmenstetten * Minden * Montreal * Montreux * Muri * Muri-Gumligen * Muttenz * Nanikon * Nurnberg * Nagold * Neckargmund * Neuchacirc;tel * Neuhausen * Neuss *New York City * Nidau * Niederhasli * Niederlenz * Nussbaumen * Nyon * Oberdorf/Stans * Oberhausen * Oberkirch * Oberursel * Oberuster * Oberwil * Obfelden * Odense * Offenbach * Oldenburg * Olten * Opfikon * Oslo * Ottawa * Osnarbruck * Ossingen * Ostermundigen * Ostfildern * Overijssel * Oxford * Pansdorf * Paris * Passau * Petit-Lancy * Pfaffikon * Pforzheim * Pfullingen * Plannegg * Plochingen * Portland * Potsdam * Pratteln * Preetz * Puchheim * Pully * Quebec City * Rumlang * Ruschlikon * Russelsheim * Ruti * Rafz * Rannebergens * Rapperswil * Ratzeburg * Ravensburg * Rebstein * Refrath * Regensburg * Regensdorf * Reichenbach * Reinach * Renens * Reussbuhl * Reutlingen * Rheinfelden * Rhein-Neckar * Richterswil * Riehen * Rodovre * Roggwil * Romanshorn * Rombach * Rorschach * Rostock * Rostock * Rothenburg * Rotkreuz * Rottenburg * Rotterdam * Rudolfstetten * Ruswil * Suszlig;en * Saarbrucken * Sachseln * SaintQuentin * Samedan * SanFrancisco * Sargans * Sarnen * Schofflisdorf * Schoftland * Schonenwerd * Schupfen * Schaffhausen * Schattdorf * Schiedam * Schiers * Schlieren * Schliern * Schopfheim * Schwabisch Hall * Schwarzenburg * Schwerin * Schwerzenbach * Schwetzingen * Schwyz * Seattle * Seeheim-Jugenheim * Seelze * Sempach * Siegen * Sindelfingen * Singapore * Sion * Sissach * Soest * Solothurn * Speyer * Spiez * Stafa * St. Gallen * Stade * Stans * Stansstad * Starrkirch-Will * Steffisburg * Steinbach a.Ts. * Steinen * Steinhausen * Stockholms * Stuttgart * Suhr * Sundbybergs * Sursee * Tubingen * Thalwil * Therwil * Thun * Thusis * Tornesch * Toronto * Trubach * Traverse City * Trimbach * Tübingen * Turbenthal-Wila * Turgi * Ulm * Umkirch * Unna * Urdorf * Uster * Utrecht * Uznach * Uzwil * Valby * Vancouver * Växjö * Veltheim * Venezia * Vevey * Victoria * Vienna * Viernheim * Vinterviken * Volketswil * Wadenswil * Wurzburg * Wabern * Waiblingen * Wald * Wallisellen * Waltrop * Washington DC * Wattenscheid * Wattwil * Weinfelden * Weingarten * Weinheim * Wettenberg * Wetter * Wettingen * Wetzikon * Wetzlar * Wiesbaden * Wiesendangen * Wiesloch * Will * Willisau * Winterthur * Witten * Wittenbach * Wittenberg * Witzenhausen * Wolfenbuttel * Wolhusen * Worb * Worms * Wunsdorf * Yverdon * Zurich * Zofingen * Zollikerberg * Zollikofen * Zuchwil * Zug * Zurich * Zweisimmen

  Question:

Do you think it is going to stop there?

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