When I owned a car, it was a given that almost any mobility needs started by opening the door to the car or jumping on my bicycle.
Today I do not own a car, but still like driving. I can pick and choose from a variety of mobility options and book the travel plan that fits my needs. Where? When? How many? How much stuff? Level of service? Mobility options? Cost? Having found the itinerary which is most convenient, I just book, pack and go.
The various shared mobility vehicles I have used so far in Copenhagen this year.
I live in an area where I can get to almost all the above mobility options within 0-10 minutes’ walk. Rental cars and national trains within 15 minutes using Metro or S-train to get there.
Truly enjoying driving it is nice to have the liberty to pick and choose from a variety of new cars without all the burden and cost of ownership. Compared to the total cost of the cars I have owned previously there is plenty of room in the mobility budget to upgrade to a luxury car or when I want the kick of driving a Tesla. However, as you can see I mostly use the smaller cars in the neighborhood and enjoy the lower cost of mobility.
When talking about travel planning much focus is on multimodal planning and single payment. Yet whenever possible we are seeking for the direct connection both for air-travel and ground transport. This is why the private car is a formidable competitor to the concept of using the multimodal shared mobility grid to get from door to door.
Even for single mode A to B shared mobility such as public transit you have three modes of transport to get from door to door: First mile, public transit ride and last mile. The same model applies for car share, whereas city cars only have the first mile, as you can drop the car outside your door.
The question is what will help accelerate use of shared mobility most? is it a MaaS App or is it reducing the length of the first mile and last mile to attractive shared mobility options? How far are you willing to walk to get mobile?
Further discussion and contacts:
How do we best accelerate use of shared mobility to reduce congestion and improve air quality in cities. Discuss with Søren and others on LinkedIn or take the opportunity to discuss further directly with Søren here or email directly here.