This Policy Brief analyses the development challenges faced by the new collaborative mobility actors positioned in the short-distance segment, which is more promising in terms of environmental and social benefits than those who successfully develop in the long-distance segment, where there is greater competition with collective public transport. Having acknowledged that short-distance collaborative mobility actors are experiencing developmental difficulties, this Policy Brief raises the question of the role of public authorities and suggests six pillars that could form a public strategy for a collaborative and sustainable mobility.
Key messages
- Carpooling and car sharing can reduce the environmental impact and cost of travel, the annual savings for an individual ranging from a few hundred to over 3,000€.
- However, despite innovations brought by new actors, these practices continue to make little headway in the short-distance segment and are also struggling to break into sparsely populated areas (rural areas, outer suburbs, small cities, etc.). User access to a mix of transport solutions, including collective transport, and the efficiency of collaborative mobility platforms requiring a large number of users, are recurrent and particularly strong issues in these areas.
- Until recently, public authorities have poorly integrated these new actors into their mobility policies. However, they have a vital role in featuring the articulation between collaborative mobility and other modes of transport.
- A public strategy for collaborative and sustainable mobility could be based on six pillars: communication support; tax clarification; road system planning; experimentation; better governance; public funding. These pillars should be mobilized to varying degrees based on the territory types, the last pillar proving to be quite important in sparsely populated areas.
