From carshare operators, experts, cities, and policy groups in Europe

From Sweden:

Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Per Schillander, National expert, Car-Sharing/Car-Clubs
Swedish Road Administration Box 14033
400 20 Gothenburg, Sweden

The value of the World Carshare Consortium is hard to overestimate. Either you work in a small city, a minor country or a capital it would be impossible to cover all the knowledge and experience coming up in different part of the world. In the 8 years I have been the expert on car sharing at the Swedish road administration I have often praised the email coming from the World Carshare Consortium. News, research programs, marketing efforts, films, publications and practical guides, launches, improvements in cars and technical platforms together with sharp analyses of the evolving process of car sharing services have all reached me in my mailbox.

I would surely not have had the time or money to catch all this information in my own way. Thus I am, and I believe the whole Swedish car sharing community is, greatly thankful to the World Carshare Consortium. I hope I have in some amount contributed from my part of the CS-world. Even though the car sharing industry is growing stronger day by day, I am sure that the World Carshare Consortium will make a big difference in many years from now.

Netherlands:

Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Jan Borghuis
Greenwheels BV, Rotterdam 3006 AA Netherlands

Over 100 years ago, the car was introduced into society and in our cities. Over the past years, cities were adapted to cars. In historical city centres, a major part has been sacrificed to build motorways and parking lots. Through our vision we aim to reduce the degree in which people sacrifice city space in order to use cars. Instead, people adjust the way in which they are using their car to suit the city surrounding. Our ambition goes beyond carsharing, just like the New Mobility Agenda on the World Carshare Consortium!

Switzerland

Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Peter Muheim
Mobility International Inc.
Gütschstrasse 2, Postfach CH-6000 Luzern 7 Switzerland

I'm working in the car sharing industry since 1990. I remember the time as nobody knows of anybody who was working for the same clever idea to share car instead of owning it. The World Carshare Consortium is connecting people with the same interest - to establish successful car sharing services around the world for a living planet. Thanks to you Eric for make this happened!

Aujourd'hui l'autopartage connait une nouvelle phase de son développement en France avec l'arrivée des grands groupes, mais cela n'aurait pas été possible sans ce travail collaboratif en réseaux entre pionnier de l'autopartage dans le monde, sans le support de World Carshare développé par Eric Britton.

Sunday, 26 October 2008
Nicolas LeDourec
Co-Founder and former CEO of mobizen - La voiture a la carte
Strasbourg, France
World Carshare is a one of those precious 'virtual cafes' where anyone who feels concerned by the global practice of car sharing can bring his or her thoughts, ideas without any fear of criticism or condescendence. One can tap into a diverse and global community of people who all have a stake in the art and practice of innovating in the field of providing mobility services to people, companies and cities worldwide. In such a field, there is no truth, just choices to make and they betterbe well informed ! I must say that, in my experience, such virtual afe places do not live very ong without a great 'connector' at rthe counter. SO this is my opportunity to thank Eric for being such a central linking node to this web of practice. Incidentallly, you can also count on Eric for unbiased, uncomrpomised, witty interventions. On, on Eric, keep our wheels and the rest spinning!

I have always been impressed by the quality of job made by World Carshare and Eric Brittion, as well as his kindness, his enthusiasm, and his tenacity. Carsharing needs this website and forum, carsharing need this guy.

Best regards from Strasbourg and all cities from France AutoPartage carsharing cooperative network (Marseille, Lyon, Grenoble, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Lille, Poitiers, Rennes)

I can only agree with what has been written before. The carsharing world is a young, innovating and exciting place to work. Lot's of work, but also lot's of joy. Thanks to World Carshare we're not sitting each on our little 'island' and we're aware that people worldwide are working on the same project. World Carshare is the perfect (and only) way to keep in touch with what is going on elsewhere in "Carsharing land". So we are not only sharing cars, but also sharing ideas. I just wished I found some more time to participate in a more active way. Keep on running!

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From North America

Canada

Tuesday 4 November 2008
Tony Simopoulos, President
Metavera Solutions Inc..
Toronto, ON Canada

I have watched CarSharing grow from little more than an idea in North America to the nearly mainstream operation it is today. It's been exciting on the front lines of this business since 2000, introducing powerful new technologies to our customers that help them serve their customers and manage their operations.

The community of operators, researchers, technologists, and hobbyists is rich with innovative ideas and practical solutions. All of us come to together on the World Carshare Consortium. Eric's leadership and commitment to the consortium have been an inspiration to many and a benefit to all.

I look forward to the continued sharing of ideas through this fantastic resource for years to come.

Thursday 23 October 2008
Kevin McLaughlin
President, AutoShare. Publisher, carsharing.net
Autoshare, Toronto, Canada

I have been thinking about car sharing almost night and day since I first read about this amazing idea in 1994, and actively researching, promoting, supporting, publishing, investing in and managing car sharing-related web sites and operating companies since 1995, when there were only a few hundred people in North America actually using this kind of service.

Since then, the World CarShare Consortium has played a vital role in supporting the exponential growth of this industry worldwide - a result that not only provides good jobs and economic benefits to so many communities, but a real solution towards on of our planet's tremendous environmental challenges, sustainable transportation (and an alternative to private car ownership). Thanks Eric, for your tireless efforts and commitment.

Saturday 18 October 2008
Marco Viviani
Directeur, développement , Communauto inc.
1117, rue Ste-Catherine Ouest Montréal (Québec) H3B 1H9

We at Communauto have appreciated the World Carshare Consortium effort since the time when carsharing was limited to few organisations in the world. Providing varied and a substantial amount of information and being the oldest and most comprehensive sources, the Consortium remains the most important reference to stay updated about news and researches related to car sharing. The variety of subjects it touches allows all kind of people to find its own interest: from the established car sharing organisation to students searching for first information on the topic.

World Carshare Consortium is the ultimate platform to exchange and share knowledge among organisations and researchers. And we know how much this is important!

Thursday 16 October 2008
Krystan Pawlikowski, Fleet Co-ordinator, Grand River CarShare
3 - 29 King Street East Kitchener ON N2G 2K4

The World Carshare Consortium has been an invaluable source of information for all participants in the CarSharing industry. The Consortium hosts a worldwide forum that is open to all and keeps all subscribers up to date with news in the industry. This Forum allows for discussion and collaboration amongst all participants.

We at Grand River CarShare appreciate this invaluable resource for news about the expansion of CarSharing to different markets, the development of new technologies, and new perspectives on target audiences and marketing strategies. As we are a small co-operative organization with limited staff resources we would be unable to independently research this information, we depend on the World Carshare to keep ourselves current on the growth and development of CarSharing throughout the world.

Thank you for you continued work that helps us all.

Tuesday 21 October 2008
Peter Zimmer, co-owner, General Manager
CarShareHFX, Halifax NS Canada

I've been involved in trying to bring carsharing to Halifax Nova Scotia for much of the past decade. It could have been a very lonely dream on this north-eastern corner of North America. However I did have the various email lists and Web site of The World Carsharing Consortium / New Mobility Agenda ( and even the odd Skype call from Eric in Paris ) as a data source, inspiration, a way to make connections around the world with others who started earlier and in perhaps more likely locations.

We're about to launch CarShareHFX / CarShare Atlantic Ltd. ( carsharinghfx.ca ) and close to the top of my personal "Thank you" list is Eric Britton and through him, the colleagues from around the world who populate the [WorldCarShare] email list and the vast resource of the World Carsharing Consortium that Eric's kept alive and accessible and so very useful to us over the years. Carsharing is clearly making an ever increasing impact on the cities of the world, and as world citizens we need all the good tools we can find to bring this mobility option to new cities, and town and even villages around the world.

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United States

Friday 10 October 2008
Ref Lindmark, Transportation Planner
King County Metro Transit, Seattle, WA 98103

Ten years ago (1998) King County Metro Transit in Seattle WA explored the idea of bringing car sharing to the Seattle area. We believed then and continue to advocate that car sharing and transit are natural partners in providing mobility to the region. We have looked to the World Carshare for ideas, research data, and most of all connections to organizations around the world that are also working on car sharing. Car sharing today addresses a variety of different markets with a number of different business models. The Consortium is the one place that brings all that together in a organized and useful way.

As public agency, we have depended on the Consortium to keep up on the changing environment and it has help us continue to frame our support for car sharing here in King County in ways that have complemented our demand management programs, our support for smart growth, and our commitment to innovation. The World Carshare Consortium has also provided the forum for placing car sharing in the middle of a whole host of new ideas that will be needed to address climate change and new mobility.

Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Brian Kusler, Principal,
Opencar Networks, San Francisco CA 94114

This forum is great. There's so much information about vehicle sharing and its related technologies out there, it can be pretty overwhelming when you have a busy organization to run. What I like the most is that it turns the members into "smart filters" for all of this information -- widely dispersing the great things they find and discarding the chaff. Even with RSS, vertical search, and traditional media, I still find that I get the best information and industry gossip right here.

I agree completely with this point made by Eric: "to develop materials and to work directly to support cities that are interested in having carsharing but who in many cases need some help when it comes to figuring out the best way to fit it into the broader policy context" I talk to so many people who want to start carsharing but are missing key pieces of the puzzle -- whether it's institutional support, insurance, or money, smaller organizations often need a bit of "last mile" support to get their operations up and running with enough runway to have a chance at success. While we've really gotten the technology piece of the puzzle down to a turnkey solution, we need that level of "engineering" for the rest of the launch process.

Tuesday 21 October 2008
David Brook
Carsharing & New Mobility Consultant
Portland, Oregon, USA

I have long been a great admirer and supporter of the extensive resources of the World Carshare Consortium and the commitment of Eric Britton to integrate the new view of mobility into transportation systems around the world. As founder of the first commercial carshare in the USA (Carsharing Portland, 1998) I relied on the World Carshare email discussion list, and later the Ecoplan web site, to better understand various to operating carsharing services, their relationship to other institutions and to make connections for with others.

Eric's generosity in time and spirit and his vision have been an inspirtation to many. In addition, the various white papers and major publications he has written and coordinated have given carsharing and other alternatives a legitimacy that otherwise would have taken much longer to develop. World Carshare and Ecoplan is a valuable, and under-appreciated, resource. Thank you.

Thursday 23 October 2008
Susan Shaheen, Ph.D., Co-Director,
Transportation Sustainability Research Center
University of California, Berkeley and Davis

World Carshare provides an excellent source of up-to-date information on carsharing from around the world. It allows interactions among a wide range of participants--from experts to new entrants. This source is invaluable to our research in tracking carsharing developments and in distributing our latest shared-vehicle research to the world.

Thursday, 23 October 2008
Hannah Clapsadle
Eureka, CA USA

I live in Eureka, CA USA. It is fairly rural, almost in Oregon. I have not started a carshare project yet, but knowing that there is a world-wide network of folks working on carsharing has inspired me not to give up on my goal. I think it is so important environmentally and socially that carsharing be promoted. We as human beings can learn so much by working together and sharing through cooperative coownership, and this is something we need to learn now more than ever.

Friday, 24 October 2008
Jerry McIntire
Original member, Portland CarShare. Current member, Zipcar. Founding member, Driftless CarShare.
Viroqua, WI 54665

Having been an original member of the first commercial carshare in North America (1998), I have watched the growth of carsharing with interest for ten years, and World Carshare has been a great help in learning about what is happening around the world. Valuable clues for American carsharing. My family and my wife's business have both been members of Flexcar (merged with Zipcar now), and we are now starting a rural carshare in SW Wisconsin. The car share model can work and is well received in a wide variety of communities, when adapted to the local needs. We look forward to sharing more and driving less as the years go on, reducing transportation emissions and traffic still more while getting to know our neighbors better in the process.

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Rest of World

Australia

Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Nic Lowe
Director, GoGet Australia

The World Carshare Consortium has been invaluable to the operation and continued innovation of our business. I've had direct contact with Eric, who is an excellent advocate for carsharing and a serious thinker in the new mobility space. Being in Australia, we're a long way from many of the international developments in carsharing - the consortium has allowed us to be very 'up to date' on developments in this market. Its also been instrumental in forming some of the 'code share' arrangements (your member is our member and vica versa) we have made with North American operators. We commend the work thats been done by the forum - we couldn't work without it.

Singapore

Thursday, 23 October 2008
Lewis Chen
General Manager in NTUC Income Car Co-Op

World CarShare Consortium is a wonderful platform for those who are interested in Carsharing. Through the sharing of ideas and learning of the experiences from various carsharing providers, it has definitely to support growth of the carsharing concept in the world and helped to build a sustainable transportation model for the future. I have always believe that Carsharing is an innovative transportation concept and hope to see that more cities throughout the world will incorporate the concept in their urban planning. I certainly recommend this wonderful resource to the carsharing operators including those who are planning to start!

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