A6 (NRP 41) - Car Pooling (ICARO)
Overview
Background & policy context:
This project results from the Swiss participation in the EU research programme 'Increase of Car Occupancy (ICARO)' and is funded by NRP 41. The NRP 41 was launched by the Federal Council at the end of 1995 to improve the scientific basis on which Switzerland's traffic problems might be solved, taking into account the growing interconnection with Europe, ecological limits, and economic and social needs.
The NRP 41 aimed to become a think-tank for sustainable transport policy.
Each one of the 54 projects belongs to one of the following six modules:
- A Mobility: Socio-institutional Aspects
- B Mobility: Socio-economical Aspects
- C Environment: Tools and Models for Impact Assessments
- D Political and Economic Strategies and Prerequisites
- E Traffic Management: Potentials and Impacts
- F Technologies: Potentials and Impacts
- M Materials
- S Synthesis Projects
Objectives:
The average occupancy of private cars in Switzerland has decreased continuously over the past years, today it is lower than 1.62 persons per vehicle, in commuting even lower than 1.14 (1994).
Yet it is practically impossible to increase car occupancy rapidly and significantly under today's framework of the transport economy by applying partial and isolated measures. Incentive measures like co-ordinating centres for matching transportation needs, publicity campaigns, preferential parking for carpools, or reserved lanes for High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV-lanes) do not by themselves induce the formation of numerous new carpools. At best they may stop or slow down a further reduction of the car occupancy.
Such measures make sense only if they are very cheap, or if they have other positive effects, such as the acceleration of buses on separate lanes. So far it has not been possible to implement a comprehensive strategy to increase car occupancy in Europe.
In Switzerland, such a strategy would more or less interfere in many places with today's strategy of promoting public transport. The main reason for this situation is mostly the fact that operating a private car is so cheap that most workers can easily afford to drive alone. They usually prefer the flexibility of single occupancy driving to the co-ordination effort necessary to form a carpool.
Furthermore, carpool matching centres cannot operate efficiently for commuters if they have to cover their costs, because without individual assistance the number of new carpools will hardly be greater in the long run than the number of disappearing ones.
Some day, the use of internet-based information may facilitate the exchange of information on empty seats, but so far the modest success of such matching services is usually limited to occasional intercity trips. There are no lasting positive experiences available for commuting. The technology is practically ready, but it does not replace the personal contact.
Most experiments aiming at an increase of car occupancy in Europe have not shown encouraging results, except for the HOV-lanes in Madrid and in Leeds.
In order to arrive at a considerably higher occupancy, it is probably necessary to improve the economic framework for car-poolers, i.e. to have higher costs of car transport, and to induce a different public attitude towards the use of cars. Specific measures will have a considerable effect only in a subsequent phase. This does not exclude that it
Methodology:
When setting up the research programme on urban transport, the European Commission assumed that car occupancy can be increased by using specific measures and innovative technologies. Consequently, real life demonstrations were asked for.
The ICARO project has consisted out of three parts:
- first of all, best practices and general conditions for the formation of carpools were examined in different countries of Europe;
- secondly, in six countries pilot projects were realised and the transferability was studied with computer simulations;
- thirdly, recommendations and a manual have been drafted based on these elements.
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