TOSCA - Technological and operational support for car sharing
Overview
Background & policy context:
Car sharing is a modern mobility concept, which provides the possibility to use a car at any time needed, without owning an individual vehicle. It gives access to a fleet of cars with easy and simple procedures using the latest technology. In car sharing organisations many people use few cars –only as long as needed. A well organised car sharing service may give almost the same flexibility as a private car with higher economic and ecological efficiency.
Organised car-sharing is a mobility service, which completes the range of environmentally friendly means of transport (public transport, walking and cycling) and reduces dependence on car ownership. It works like a mobility insurance for all cases when public transportation, walking and cycling are not adequate (at night, by trips when public transport is not available or not convenient, when bulky or heavy objects have to be transported, etc.).
Car-sharing, adopted on a wide scale, can help to reduce the number of vehicles on the road considerably, so it has the potential to save resources and energy, to reduce polluting emissions, as well as to improve the quality of urban space through a reduction of (parked) vehicles. In addition, car-sharing customers can save money as they only pay when they drive. Although some car sharing success stories already exist on a large scale (mainly in co-operation with public transport, taxi operators etc. in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.), the overall awareness of the benefits of car sharing, as well as the organisational know-how and the currently available technologies (e.g. booking systems, access to vehicles and payment handling through smart cards) for building up a well functioning, reliable and user friendly car sharing system are not yet sufficiently deployed in Europe.
Small-scale operations exist in other European countries, e.g. in France and Italy. More importantly, most car sharing schemes are still non-technology based approaches and they do not include any substantial co-operation with other transport modes (e.g. public transport, taxis, etc.).
Objectives:
TOSCA has the overall intention to promote, mainly through a technological transfer initiative to the Bologna public transport operator (ATC), the idea of an integrated mobility concept in which car sharing is considered as a complementary mobility service for the public transport customers and which is based on advanced technologies developed in European Programmes.
Within this context the TOSCA project outlines the following two objectives:
- To transfer mature proven and leading edge technologies and innovative implementation/ business concepts of car sharing and
- to establish the integrated, technology-based car sharing concept as European Best Practice and to prepare for further take up in several European cities.
In order to achieve these key objectives, the following operational goals were defined:
- Transfer the innovative and technological tools of the car-sharing scheme in the City of Bremen to the public transport operator ATC-Bologna.
- Develop and implement a pilot application of car-sharing in Bologna, based on the implementation and business concept of the car-sharing system in Bremen.
- Develop a business and technical implementation plan for three European cities: Barcelona, Bucharest and Strasbourg.
- Disseminate the project results and best practice examples of car-sharing.
Methodology:
The tasks of the project were organised as follows:
- WP1 'Implementation Planning' included all tasks for planning and preparing the car sharing take-up in Bologna. All specific preconditions for physical implementation, business planning and marketing, before the take up of car sharing technologies could take place, were identified and the exact technological implementation parameters determined.
- In WP2 (Technical implementation) all software and hardware elements for the car sharing scheme in Bologna were installed. After successful installation the system was tested and the car sharing staff trained.
- The pilot car sharing system of Bologna started operations in WP3 (Operation and measurement of results). In the operation phase comprehensive data for evaluating the effects of the car sharing application were collected.
- In WP4 'Assessment and Evaluation of Results' all evaluation tasks for the TOSCA project were undertaken. The evaluation comprises the analysis of all TOSCA impacts and extent to which the quantified objectives have been met. Based on the detailed analysis, recommendations for further improvement of car-sharing operation in Bologna are given.
- WP5 (European transfer planning) and WP6 'Dissemination of Best Practice' refer to the TOSCA objective to promote the take up of the car sharing experiences in the Cities of Bremen and Bologna to other European cities. In WP5, TOSCA gave concrete support to three European 'follower' cities to develop car sharing implementation and business studies.
- Within WP6 'Dissemination and Best Practice' the experience gained within the TOSCA project was made available to a broader public by the publication of the TOSCA Take-up Guide – Car-Sharing in Practice and the Best-Practice Case Study which is available at the ELTIS database. The TOSCA Final Conference in Bologna and the two car sharing workshops in Bremen targeted a wider audience of local transport decision makers in Europe. WP6 activities included furthermore the production and dissemination of the TOSCA brochure as well as the dissemination of results via web.
- WP7 (Project Co-ordination) was a horizontal Work Package which included activities for project management. Project management consisted of the continuous co-ordination and monitoring of project progress and reporting tasks.
Organisation and internal co-operation:
Activities undertaken have involved differe
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