A study explored women’s motivations for using carsharing clubs and peerto-peer carsharing. Trust, utility and safety were among the issues that affected women’s willingness to carshare. The study concludes that operators of carsharing services should do more to meet the needs of women.
Europe accounts for 50% of the world carsharing market with further growth expected. Surprisingly, carsharing is growing in urban areas with good public transport, cycling facilities and mobility choices. An analysis of carsharing choices (i.e. car sharing clubs and peer-to-peer carsharing) found that sociodemographic variables, including gender, play an important role with the take up of carsharing being greater among men than women. Women are underrepresented in the population of carsharers, which implies that the rise in carsharing is increasing the gender gap in mobility. However, analyses of carsharing business models suggest that carsharing has great potential among women and that women could become a large segment of the carsharing market. There are a number of reasons why women could obtain value from using carsharing services. For example, the annual distance travelled by female drivers tend to be lower than that of men. Carsharing is considered to be more effective for a travel range between 15,000 and 18,000 kilometres/year. Finally, women tend to be more concerned about sustainability issues, which suggests they may be attracted to carsharing due to lower polluting emissions.
Click here to view the report.
Source: European Commission
