Transforming household mobility practices through shared consumption: Low-carbon transport and sustainable energy solutions in urban areas

This inter-disciplinary project addresses the question of how transition in the transport sector can bring about a more efficient and sustainable use of energy - critical to reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and overexploitation of common natural resources. Lately a trend has been recognized where individual ownership of cars are replaced with collectively shared vehicles. There is an emergent need to explore and estimate how these transformation in car used mobility come about, and its potential to change travel habits and reduce energy in the transport sector. This project will focus on this emerging transformation relying on innovation system theories, and a triangulation of different methodological approaches. Although spurred by new mobile technologies and applications, this is most of all a non-technical innovation that focus on changing travel practices. Thus the project will apply theories that explore this as a socio-technial innovation operating on both a micro -and macro level. Transition theories and innovation system theories are combined with theories that analyse implementation of changing mobility practises on a household level. The project will investigate these changes through a series of case studies in four European countries - the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway- where new arrangements for car sharing are available. To understand the interest and views of the stakeholders and policy makers, workshops will be held inn all four countries countries. In depth studies of households are combinedd with a household survey. Finally a cross-national delfi-study is utilized to develop scenarios, make estimation of potential future uptake of car-sharing, and its impact on energy use for hoseholds and the entire transport sector. The work is organized through a close collaboration between leading experts on transport-innovations in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.

Understanding why people enter and exit car-sharing schemes.