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Technological and Operational Support for Car-shAring FINAL REPORT CONTRACT NUMBER: IST-1999-20856 Date: April 2002
Technological and Operational Support for Car-shAring
FINAL REPORT
CONTRACT NUMBER: IST-1999-20856Date: April 2002
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DOCUMENT INFORMATION
Programme Information Society Programme
Project Number IST-1999-20856
Project Acronym TOSCA
Deliverable Name TOSCA FINAL REPORT
Dissemination Level Public usage
Nature Report
Type Deliverable
Date of preparation 5th March 2002
Prepared by (organisation) ATC-S.p.A.Via Saliceto, 340128BolognaItalyTel. +39.51.350.541Fax +39.51.350525
Authors Mirco Armandi,Anna Stridi,Consortium Members
Document reference: (C:\ANNA\TOSCA\Deliverables\FINAL_REPORT.doc)ISSUE HISTORY
Issue Originators Reviewed AuthorisedVersion 1.0 April 2002 Mirco Armandi,
Anna StridiConsortiumMembers
ATC s.p.a.Via Saliceto, 3BolognaItaly
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) PROJECT OVERVIEW ............................................................................ pag. 5Summary..........................................................................................................pag. 5Participants list..................................................................................................pag. 7The Consortium ................................................................................................pag. 7
2) PROJECT OBJECTIVES .......................................................................... pag. 9TOSCA Targets..................................................................................................pag. 9Work packages ............................................................................................... pag. 10Tasks & Results............................................................................................... pag. 11
3) APPROACH.......................................................................................... pag. 15Organisation and Internal Co-operation ............................................................ pag. 15Institutional framework and External Co-operation ............................................ pag. 16Key of success ................................................................................................. pag.16
4) RESULTS & ACHIEVEMENTS............................................................... pag. 17The goals........................................................................................................ pag. 17Contribution to EC policies ............................................................................... pag. 19
5) PROJECT DELIVERABLES.................................................................... pag. 20Deliverable 1.1 “Business & Technical Implementation Plan”.............................. pag. 20Deliverable 2.1“TOSCA Car sharing system”...................................................... pag. 24
COCOS System overall view..................................................... pag. 25Deliverable 6.1“TOSCA web site”...................................................................... pag. 34
ATC home page...................................................................... pag. 35Tosca project web sites........................................................... pag. 36CARATC web site .................................................................... pag. 41Car sharing booking modalities ................................................ pag. 44Developments ........................................................................ pag. 46
Deliverable 5.1................................................................................................ pag. 47Deliverable 5.1“Strasbourg Implementation & Business Plan” .... pag. 47Deliverable 5.1“Bucharest Implementation & Business Plan”...... pag. 50Deliverable 5.1“Barcelona Implementation & Business Plan”...... pag. 55
Deliverable 3.1“ Operation & Results Measurement”.......................................... pag. 58Bologna pilot: application ........................................................ pag. 58Caratc & real life operation ...................................................... pag. 63Data measurement ................................................................. pag. 64Technical data ........................................................................ pag. 67Economic data........................................................................ pag. 70“TOSCA” survey...................................................................... pag. 71
6) TOSCA EVALUATION........................................................................... pag. 72Deliverable 4.1 “Detailed Evaluation Plan”......................................................... pag. 73Deliverable 4.2“Assessment & Evaluation Report ”............................................. pag. 79
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7) DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES ............................................................ pag. 86Introduction.................................................................................................... pag. 86Task 6.1. Car sharing workshops...................................................................... pag. 87Task 6.2. Best practice case study and guidelines.............................................. pag. 88Task 6.3. Project web site and brochure ........................................................... pag. 89Additional activities.......................................................................................... pag. 89
8) PROJECT MANAGEMENT..................................................................... pag. 94
9) EXPLOTATION-OUTLOOK ................................................................... pag. 97Future Replication ........................................................................................... pag. 97
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1 - PROJECT OVERVIEW
Summary
TOSCA project was born from the necessity of setting up and integrating an alternativeand complementary transport system versus to the traditional idea of mobility.
TOSCA is a strategic initiative promoted and financially supported by the EuropeanCommission under the umbrella of the Information Society Technology Programme whichenables a number of European cities in the implementation of commercially sustainableIST-based car sharing concepts, as an element of flexible and intermodal door-to-doormobility, and can facilitate further take-up developments, such as: integrated smart cardfor public transport, car sharing and taxis or car sharing booking and information systemvia internet & call centre.
TOSCA project takes up all successfully implemented technologies and methodologieslearned form city of Bremen experience as well as established car sharing conceptsderived form other successful experiences.
The City of Bremen, that is one of the leading cities in Europe concerning the realisation ofa well-functioning, customer-friendly and profitable car sharing system, has alreadyadopted various car sharing technologies for facilitating the booking system and theaccess to the vehicles.1
Car sharing is a modern mobility concept, which gives the possibility of using a car at anytime needed, without owning an individual vehicle.
A well-organised car sharing service gives almost the same flexibility as a private car plushigher economic and ecological efficiency. Organised car sharing services complete thenetwork of environmentally friendly transport solutions (public transport, walking andcycling). It works like a mobility insurance for all requirements, when publictransportation, walking and cycling are not adequate.
Although some car sharing successful experiences already exist, (mainly in co-operationwith public transport or taxi operators), the overall awareness of the benefits of carsharing as well as the organisational expertise and the currently available technologies forbuilding up a well operating, reliable and user friendly car sharing system, are not yetsufficiently deployed in Europe.
The idea, of car sharing is rooted in the previous experiences gained in the NorthernEuropean countries such as, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
The support offered to the City of Bologna by the City of Bremen, basically consisted ofthe transfer of mature methodologies while INVERS provided all technological tools(hardware & software).
Polis, Bremen and Rupprecht Consult have ensured high quality dissemination of maintransport and environment policy related as well as practical benefits and options of IST-
1 In the INTERCEPT project, Bremen has developed and tested new technology elements for transferringtrip data from the on-board computer of the vehicles to the car sharing management centre, providingmultimodal transport information on the Internet and introducing a multipurpose smart card (to accessingcar sharing vehicles and public transport ticketing).
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based car sharing in Europe. Within the TOSCA project this was mainly achieved by thefollowing key publications and events:
� The TOSCA Take-up Guide – Car-Sharing in Practice (D6.3 part 1)
� The Best-Practice Case Study (ELTIS) (D6.3 part 2)2
� The TOSCA conference “Car Sharing in Practice - Intelligent Service for SustainablePersonal Mobility” on 6 February 2002 in Bologna
� The TOSCA two-day TOSCA training “Starting Innovative IT-Based Car-Sharing” from7 to 8 June 2001 in Bremen
� Strasbourg political seminar on car sharing held on 16th May followed by a socialevent on 19th May 2001
Within the TOSCA project, in fact, the city of Bremen transferred to Bologna reality, itsexpertise, its know-how, its practical assistance and all tools at its own disposal. The Cityof Bologna on behalf of ATC-S.p.A., public transport operator, implemented a pilotapplication of IST-based car sharing called CarAtc.3
ATC with the contribution and the support of Bologna Municipality started to operate thecar sharing pilot application basically for guaranteeing a higher quality of the servicesoffered to its customers but also to improve environmental conditions, to reduce trafficcongestion and to provide citizens with a system which would offer benefits in terms ofeconomic savings, shifts rationalisation, less parking problems, more flexibility, pollutionlevels reduction, time saving.
Rupprecht Consult, a partner specialised in evaluation and dissemination, carried out thethorough evaluation of the TOSCA project. The overall results of the evaluation reveal that the transfer of IT-based car-sharing fromBremen to the public transport operator ATC Bologna has been successful, even if real usewas comparatively low and the economic criteria were not met during the evaluationperiod. With the pilot application of the TOSCA project, CarATC has been established as anew mobility service in Bologna. Pilot customers were satisfied. Due to the Iniziativa Car-Sharing (ICS) the continuation of car-sharing in Bologna is almost guaranteed. 4
Therefore, Bologna, as member of a national network of cities, will run the car sharingservice on a larger scale. This will imply the realisation a wider system mainly in terms ofdifferentiated vehicles categories & number of parking locations available. The new servicewill enable several Italian cities to co-ordinate and to monitor a system running in a sort ofcommon circuit all over the country.
2 http://www.eltis.org3 CarAtc is a play on word name meaning two different things in the Italian language: ATC vehicle or DearATC4 D4.2 - Assessment and Evaluation Report, p. 45
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Participants list
� ATC .S.p.a-Bologna ITALY
� Freie Hansestadt-Der Senator Bau und Umwelt GERMANY
� INVERS GmbH GERMANY
� Rupprecht Consult Forschung & Beratung Gmbh GERMANY
� POLIS a.s.b.l BELGIUM
� ACCESS (merged from Car Free Cities &EuroCities transport committee) BELGIUM
� TMB-Barcelona SPAIN
� RATB-Bucuresti ROMANIA
� Communauté Urbaine-Strasbourg FRANCE
The Consortium
The TOSCA project consortium consists of one contractor, main co-ordinator (ATCBologna), 8 project members (City of Bremen, INVERS GmbH, Rupprecht Consult -Forschung und Beratung GmbH, Polis, Access (formerly Eurocities), TMB(Barcelona),RATB(Bucharest), CUS(Strasbourg) and one subcontractor(StadtAuto Bremen). As required for a Take Up Action, the consortium includes users and suppliers which co-operate for encouraging the taking up of technologies and methodologies in the area ofcar sharing. Both, users and suppliers are committed to successfully implement the TOSCATake Up Action.
In the TOSCA project, the public transport operator of the City of Bologna (ATC), performsas a user, by taking up matures and successfully proven Bremen technologies andmethodologies in particular from Bremen car sharing operator StadtAuto as well as fromINVERS as concerns technological aspects. ATC has a strong political commitment which enables the realisation of a pilot car sharingscheme within the framework of its overall strategy of enhancing the quality of mobilityservices of its customers. Furthermore ATC Bologna is already managing an advancedpublic transport information system which will be briefly extended so to allow alsoinformation on car sharing services.
ATC Bologna, the project contractor, was responsible for the technical and administrativeco-ordination matters as well as for the co-operation with the take up support node.
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The City of Bremen was the supplier of know-how aspects for car sharing strategicplanning and had a fundamental role in the overall urban transport policy. Thesubcontractor StadtAuto Bremen, who has several years of experiences of car sharingmanagement, took a supplier role in the area of business and implementation planning.StadtAuto provided its expertise in supporting ATC Bologna during the development of awell functioning, efficient and competitive car sharing system. INVERS, leading supplier of technologies for electronic management systems, especiallyfor car sharing and other transport applications, provided, along the project, all hard andsoftware elements for the car sharing management system. Rupprecht Consult Forschung & Beratung GmbH, a specialist in evaluation anddissemination of EU projects, was in charge of the TOSCA evaluation and substantiallysupported dissemination activities. In the “Assessment and Evaluation Report” (D4.2) thethorough TOSCA evaluation results are presented in detail. Moreover, this key documentcomprises conclusions and recommendations for future car-sharing in Bologna.Dissemination was supported substantially by Rupprecht Consult with the production ofthe “TOSCA Take-up Guide” and the “Best-Practice Case Study (ELTIS)” (D6.3). Withthese documents the valuable experience yielded in the TOSCA project is made availableto a broader public. Rupprecht Consult coordinated the content preparation the TOSCATraining in Bremen and the Final Conference in Bologna. Both TOSCA public events werecarried out with great success. Dissemination activities have been directly carried out by the European networks Polis andAccess (formerly Eurocities). Polis has a remarkable experience in disseminating andsupporting implementation of IST applications in the sector of transport amongstEuropean cities. Access (formerly Eurocities), has a wide experience in several activitiestargeting the local decision makers (seminars & events organisation, publications editing,lectures) mainly through its working group “Practical alternatives to the car”, which hasalso a good experience with thematic workshops in the field of car sharing schemes. Access has also significantly contributed to the promotion of Car Sharing to decisionmakers in Europe through the development and wide dissemination of the Car SharingBrochure as well as the Car Sharing Manual (CD Rom).Polis and Access were also be in charge of selecting further three members which havetaken up the role of “followers”, starting from the experiences matured and the projectresults gained from the Cities of Bologna and Bremen. Guidelines were a launching pad fordeveloping a business and implementation plan within their countries. The call for tenderfor the followers aimed at selecting two cities from the Southern European scenario(France & Spain) and one city from CEECs5
5 CEEC: Central Eastern European Countries
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2 - PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The main steps that Tosca project is looking at undertaking can be summed up in 4 mainpoints:
1. Transfer innovative technological tools of the car sharing scheme from the City ofBremen (supplier) to the public transport operator ATC-Bologna (user)
2. Develop and implement a pilot application of car sharing in the city of Bologna, basedon the implementation and business concept of the car sharing system in Bremen
3. Develop a car sharing business and technical implementation plan for 3 European citiesin France, Spain and CEEC (Central Eastern European Country)
4. Disseminate the project results and best practice examples of car sharing
On the basis of mentioned objectives, an agreed set of tasks has been defined. Thesetasks were implemented within seven work packages.
TOSCA Targets
The main goal, the car-sharing service is to satisfy user mobility needs at least on thesame level as private car ownership. Car-sharing must, in fact, represent a validalternative to car owning. The advantages, both individual and social, resulting from abetter rationalisation in the collective use of vehicles, are several. From a social point ofview, environmental measures (reduction of air pollution due to low emission vehicles) andcar space minimisation undoubtedly produce remarkable benefits for the community. Froman individual point of view, the advantages are even more immediate: time saving forexample. In the car-sharing system no maintenance or cleaning activities are requiredfrom the user, no parking problems arise. The car-sharing user only uses the vehicle whenreally necessary. Benefits can also be achieved from an economical point of view. Bysharing fixed management costs among users through a proportionally defined tariffstructure it will be possible to obtain important savings and to ensure an economicbalance.General goals for achieving the best results within the car-sharing experience can besynthesised as follows:���Address multiple car ownership with the goal that just one private car is kept, and alladditional cars are given up because of car-sharing,���Convince 25% of the pilot car-sharing customers not to buy a car (first or additionalone),���Urban space conservation, which means freeing 360 m2 surface from car occupancy(considering that each CARATC supposedly replaces 4 cars),���About 20.000 km not driven during the pilot application phase resulting in anenvironmental benefit equalling 4 tons of CO2.
Obviously there are additional advantages coming from car-sharing. Certainly thecompany image will improve and increase ATC credibility as a mobility services provider.
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The company will in fact diversify the range of services offered to citizens and will be ableto respond to the specific needs of the market target group.Furthermore considerable benefits are expected because car-sharing users will use publictransport services in order to reach car-sharing locations.
Work packages
WP1 “Implementation Planning” included all tasks for planning and preparing the carsharing take-up in Bologna. All specific preconditions for physical implementation, businessplanning and marketing, before the take up of car sharing technologies could take place,were identified and the exact technological implementation parameters determined. In WP2 (Technical implementation) all software and hardware elements for the carsharing scheme in Bologna were installed. After successful installation the system wastested and the car sharing staff trained.
The pilot car sharing system of Bologna started operations in WP3 (Operation andmeasurement of results). In the operation phase comprehensive data for evaluating theeffects of the car sharing application were collected.
In WP4 “Assessment and Evaluation of Results” all evaluation tasks for the TOSCA projectwere undertaken. The evaluation comprises the analysis of all TOSCA impacts and extentto which the quantified objectives have been met. Based on the detailed analysis,recommendations for further improvement of car-sharing operation in Bologna are given.
WP5 (European transfer planning) and WP6 “Dissemination of Best Practice” refer to theTOSCA objective to promote the take up of the car sharing experiences in the Cities ofBremen and Bologna to other European cities. In WP5 TOSCA gave concrete support tothree European “follower” cities to develop car sharing implementation and businessstudies. Within WP6 ‘Dissemination and Best Practice’ the experience gained within theTOSCA project was made available to a broader public by the publication of the TOSCATake-up Guide – Car-Sharing in Practice and the Best-Practice Case Study which isavailable at the ELTIS database. The TOSCA Final Conference in Bologna and the two carsharing workshops in Bremen targeted a wider audience of local transport decision makersin Europe. WP6 activities included furthermore the production and dissemination of theTOSCA brochure as well as www-dissemination of results.WP7 (Project Co-ordination) was a horizontal Work Package which included activities forproject management. Project management consisted of the continuous co-ordination andmonitoring of project progress and reporting tasks.
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Tasks & Results
WP1Detailed business planning This task included the following activities: � State-of-the-art analysis of car sharing systems and technologies in Europe� Identification of suitable car sharing locations� Launch of an information campaign in order to select a group of potential users,
distribution of a specific survey and results analysis, definition of local usersrequirements
� Operative organisation of the system and definition of adequate tariff structure� Car sharing marketingSet up user groupIt was intended for setting up user group :� definition of the Car Sharing Club and its internal rules� analysis of legal problems and contracts definition� Investigation on any specifically local user requirements for using car sharing vehicles� analysis customers mobility needsPreparation of technical implementationThis included the following activities: � Confirmation of System Components� Planning of car sharing call centre and administration centre� Selection of Vehicles� Adjustments to COCOS system� Smart card design, printing and personalisation � Planning of communication infrastructure� Planning of operational responsibilities Achievements:� Analysis on the state of the art of car sharing systems and technologies in Europe� Marketing campaign : Bologna citizens were informed about the service by means of
leaflets, brochures, posters on buses and at and the most strategic city points, thisallowed to raise the interest of both public transport customers & private motorists
� A targeted survey enabled ATC to recruit potential subscribers and consequently toidentify users group
� Car sharing technical implementation started with internal staff and the monitoring &supervision of INVERS specialists
� Vehicles fleet as well legal, administrative and accountancy aspects established� D1.1 “ Business and technical implementation plan” submitted.
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WP2System InstallationThis task included:� software & car-related hardware installation as well as integration testsOperator Training� Extensive training of operation manager and network administrators on all system
elements System Verification� Check system operation in internal use Achievements� Reservation Centre was installed at COTABO taxi operator� 9 on board computers were installed on the smart cars � Operators were trained to face failure of reservations events and users vehicles misuse� Operation tests and final system tuning fulfilled by internal team with the support of
external staff� System available and fully operative since beginning June 2001� D2.1 “TOSCA car sharing system” submitted.
WP3Real life operation � nine cars & four locations available� users equipped with smart cards and entered into the database� possibility to book the car sharing vehicles via internet or via the ATC call centreMaintenance of system� periodical maintenance of all hardware elements � Maintenance in case of reported failures Measurement of data for evaluation� Time of use & mileage Achievements� System running� Started data collection for evaluating the car sharing operation in Bologna by means of
a survey which investigated on car sharing use and future interest in joining the clubafter the piloting phase and through the analysis of data obtained through automaticcounts/manual registration, and collection of factual information.
� D3.1 “operation & result measurement” submitted.
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WP4 Detailed evaluation plan� Identification of detailed operational project goals, expected impacts and appraisal
groups (i.e. users/non-users affected)� Definition of evaluation methodologies and data requirements� Concrete definition of the reference cases and further operationalisation of success
criteria.Analysis of evaluation results� State-of-the-art data analysis including user acceptance and cost-benefit analysis.Consolidated assessment and evaluation report� Results summary and project achievements assessment� Establishment of a generalised form for achieving potentials monetary, mobility-
related and environmental returns on investments in car sharing technologies. Achievements� Consolidated evaluation report of TOSCA project� Based on TOSCA evaluation plan taking into consideration EU guidelines and
experience� Detailed analysis per TOSCA impact and indicator� Recommendations for future improvement for car-sharing operation� Public document targeted not only at specialists, but also at non-expert stakeholders
WP5Selection of transfer partners� POLIS and Access (formerly Car Free Cities) launched a “call for tender”On-site visits � On-site visits, in Bremen and Bologna, were organised for representatives from the 3
“follower” cities. Implementation and business plans � Car sharing implementation and business plans have been developed in the 3 selected
“follower cities” in France, Spain and in a CEEC Achievements� Polis and Access (formerly Car Free Cities) defined the followers' profile� The transfer partners were selected � The three followers cities (Strasbourg, Barcelona, Bucharest) were provided with
concrete, tailored support for implementing an IST-based car sharing system in theircountries
� D5.1 “Three Implementations & Evaluation Reports” submitted.
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WP6Car sharing workshops � Bremen, Bologna and other cities presented their experiences in using leading edge
technologies and innovative business concepts for car sharing.Best practice case study and guidelines� A detailed “Car sharing Take up guide” & a “ Best Practice Case study” were produced.Project web site & brochure� A project web site was established and maintained by ATC Bologna. � A car sharing brochure, including the description of benefits and options of
implementing advanced car sharing technologies was edited. Achievements� The TOSCA Take-up Guide – Car-Sharing in Practice (D6.3 part 1)� The Best-Practice Case Study (ELTIS) (D6.3 part 2)� The TOSCA conference “Car Sharing in Practice - Intelligent Service for Sustainable
Personal Mobility” on 6 February 2002 in Bologna� The TOSCA two-day TOSCA training “Starting Innovative IT-Based Car-Sharing” from 7
to 8 June 2001 in Bremen� TOSCA Brochure� TOSCA web site� A stronger awareness amongst local transport decision makers and mobility operators
on the benefits and options of realising an IST-based car sharing system as an elementof flexible and intermodal door-to-door mobility was arisen.
WP7Project Management Team� The project co-ordinator organised project management meetings � Project management team decided all critical matters.Continuous project management � The project co-ordinator ensured a continuous project management in order to carry
out all the contractual, technical, administrative, and financial co-ordination tasks Co-operation with Take-up support node � to define common guidelines for evaluation, standards for dissemination and technical
transfer as well as to develop common publications and events for all transport relatedtake-up measures.
Achievements� Creation of a Project Management Team � Participation at concertation and co-ordination meetings� reporting of the work performance towards the European Commission by means of
quarterly and periodic reports
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3 - APPROACH
The decision of ATC to experience & manage a car sharing service in the local area ofBologna arise from the idea to provide citizens with an additional public mobility mode yetcomplementary to bus service to:� Reduce private car ownership,� Encourage car sharing users to exploit the other existing transport means.
Start-up of the car-sharing initiative in Bologna has not always been easy since car-sharingis a mobility solution Italians are not yet used to. Different steps had to be taken in orderto organise the system. Various internal ATC departments had to contribute theirexperiences to guarantee the best unfolding of this experiment.ATC, the local public transport operator, is certainly a local reference company for a seriesof initiatives aimed at improving mobility management as it offers a wide range ofinnovative and alternative services. ATC is in charge of research, planning of andcommercialising of innovative technological solutions for public transport (e.g. on-demand-service6), parking management in the area of Bologna and it is responsible for the depotsfor vehicles towed away by the police. The car-sharing idea originated and has beendeveloped within this general context.
In order to set up a car-sharing service in Bologna it was essential to have the applicationframework analysed and evaluated beforehand. Above all, the feasibility study wasimportant to verify that all necessary pre-conditions for setting up a car-sharing schemewere duly met (esp. identification of suitable car-sharing locations, analysis of targetgroups, definition of adequate tariff structure, vehicle selection, confirmation of systemcomponents, planning of call centre and administration centre, marketing campaign).Experience4 1
Organisation and Internal Co-operation
Activities undertaken have involved different aspects from management and practicalorganisation to a strategic study on how to promote the car-sharing service.
During the preparation phase, direct support was provided by the ATC parkingmanagement system, the technological department and the marketing offices. These ATCthree departments assembled their expertise and know-how to accompany theimplementation:� Parking Management Office: Co-operation was particularly useful because of its wide
experience and knowledge in the territorial and fees management of the city ofBologna
� Marketing offices: Primarily important in the development of the strategic marketingsolutions for creating ever increasing awareness among people of this new means oftransport.
6 "ProntoBus" which is a new service that works only on users ’ request serving low-density areas.The booking is made through a call centre operator who enters all data necessary to the reservation, whichare then automatically sent to the server which compacts all information received and forwards a passengerboarding list to the driver via GSM by means of an sms.
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� Technological Department: played a fundamental role concerning testing and trainingactivities Parking Management Office:
Institutional framework and External Co-operation
Strong and intense political sponsorship of the Mobility City Council plus an agreementwith the Bologna taxi operator proved to be successful starting points for the service.
To provide customers with increasingly efficient services and to integrate already existingpublic transport modes, ATC established a co-operation with the local taxi operator. Theagreement was a necessary tool for different reasons:� Avoid conflict with private interests� Benefit from the experience of the taxi operator (COTABO)2The taxi operator, in fact, not only supports ATC in the booking tasks (call centre), butalso concerning the 24-hour fleet assistance with the most basic activities:� Car maintenance� Towing service� Refuelling� Vehicle cleaning
From the very start of car-sharing in Bologna, communication of data between the twolocal partners showed that a successful co-operation had in fact been achieved.Obviously the first months were meant to be a training phase. Arising difficulties wereascribed to the fact that the service was innovative in several aspects:� Type of mobility� Type of service� Use of new technologies
Key of success
A winning result was represented by the internal organisation and the agreement of co-operation reached with external partners.This allowed to:� Avoid structure costs;� Create synergies among different company sectors;� Manage the service only with marginal costs.
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4 - RESULTS & ACHIEVEMENTS
The goals
TOSCA project, promoted and funded by the European Commission under InformationSociety Technology Programme, is a strategic initiative that supports a number ofEuropean cities in the implementation of commercially sustainable IST-based car-sharingconcepts, as an element of flexible, friendly and inter-modal door-to-door mobility.
TOSCA aims at facilitating further technological take-up developments, such as: Integratedsmart cards for public transport, booking and information systems via Internet & callcentre.TOSCA was born from the necessity of setting up an alternative system to the traditionalidea of mobility still aiming at integrating the various already existing transport modalities.
The idea of transferring a car-sharing system into an Italian framework his rooted in theexperience gained by the city of Bremen in Germany; thus, to guarantee the successfuloutcome of the transfer, the city of Bremen offered the city of Bologna continuouspractical assistance and all necessary tools required for setting up a car-sharing system.Within TOSCA project, the City of Bologna (ATC-s.p.a), public transport operator,implemented a pilot application of IST-based car-sharing, called CarAtc. ATC with thesupport of the Bologna Municipality implemented the car-sharing pilot application toguarantee a high quality of customer services in order to improve more & moreenvironmental conditions.The following operational goals have been achieved:
� Transfer innovative technological tools of the car-sharing scheme in the City ofBremen to the public transport operator ATC-Bologna
TOSCA supported the transfer of car-sharing technological elements for setting up a car-sharing organisation and communication system in Bologna from the City of Bremen whois one of the leading cities in the management of an advanced IST-based car-sharingsystem.The hardware and software components of the Car-sharing organisation andcommunication system (COCOS) provided by INVERS (Germany) were used for setting upa car-sharing system starting with 9 vehicles fleet placed at three locations in the centralarea of Bologna and involving a users group of about 100 customers. COCOS helped to provide a reliable, user-friendly and efficient car-sharing management bysetting up an electronic booking and accounting system for transferring trip data from car-sharing vehicles to the booking centre (mainly for accounting and fleet managementpurposes). By means of contact less smart cards it is possible to control user’s access tovehicles.
� Develop and implement a pilot application of car-sharing in the city of Bologna,based on the implementation and business concept of the car-sharing system inBremen
Within the TOSCA project ATC Bologna implemented a car-sharing pilot application toguarantee a high quality of customer services and environmental benefits, the car-sharingscheme satisfied the following emerging standards for car-sharing operation:
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- Provide users with 24-hrs service accessibility, in order to offer a real alternativesolution to the private car
- Offer a fee structure based on mileage, in order to prevent from driving morethan really necessary (“pay as you drive” structure)
- Use of low emission vehicles (compliant with at least EURO III norm)
� Develop a car-sharing business and technical implementation plan for threeEuropean cities in France, Spain and CEEC (Central Eastern European Country)
The TOSCA project has enabled the cities of Barcelona, Bucharest and Strasbourg todevelop a car-sharing technical and business implementation plan. All three cities have ahigh car-sharing market potential and are strongly committed to bring forward the idea ofcar-sharing around their countries.
� Disseminate the project results and best practice examples of car-sharing Dissemination activities helped to increase awareness on the system benefits andpotentials amongst transport policy decision-makers and users in Europe.TOSCA consortium was in charge of organising on site car-sharing workshops whereresults of the car-sharing demonstrations in Bremen and Bologna were presented and thetransferability of these examples to other European cities discussed. Disseminationactivities included the publication of the TOSCA Take-Up Guide, the edition of a projectbrochure and the setting up of a project web page as well as contributing to the ELTISbest practice database.
The project success, fully confirmed by the achievements of planned objective, istherefore relevant in consideration of following elements:� Users acceptance showed from survey results and from the growth in use tendency.� Political commitment: appreciation of the city Bologna Municipality due to which ATC
will become the only car-sharing provider in the future perspective to run a servicewith up to 40-50 vehicles in Italy.
� Interest in the whole country: several delegations coming from different Italian citieswith the idea to approach the service, the operators in order to implement thesystems elsewhere.
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Contribution to EC policies Through its activities for facilitating the take up of IST-based car sharing and the expertiseof already existing best-practice examples of car sharing, the TOSCA project givesconsiderable support to a number of transport- and environment-related policy objectivesof the European Union. The promotion of the idea of car sharing, as a very importantelement of an environmentally oriented urban transport policy, meets the objectives of allthe EU policy documents calling for a more sustainable urban development, namely:� 5th Environmental Action Programme “Towards sustainability”� Towards an urban agenda COM (97) 197� Communication Sustainable urban development in the European Union: a framework
for action”� Green paper “The citizens network - Fulfilling the potential of public passenger
transport in Europe” of the Directorate General for Transport (COM(98)431)� “Air quality framework directive (96/62/EC)” Especially with regard to the Green paper “The citizens network - Fulfilling the potential ofpublic passenger transport in Europe” of the Directorate General for Transport(COM(98)431) and to the “Air quality framework directive (96/62/EC)” the contribution ofTOSCA to the environment and transport policies of the European Commission is crucial,since it facilitates the implementation of a more sustainable urban transport policy in veryconcrete and low-cost terms. Within the Green Paper “The citizens network - Fulfilling the potential of public passengertransport in Europe” of the Directorate General for Transport the European Commissionclearly defines its objective to reduce the dependence of cars by making public passengertransport more attractive, usable, more flexible and better suited to the requirements ofthe users. This paper explicitly recognises the benefits of car sharing as an element ofintermodal services. It argues that car sharing emphasises the benefits for public transportbecause car sharing fills the “mobility gap” to supplement the mobility services as a fullalternative to the private car. By promoting the experience exchange of car sharing theDG Environment of the European Commission (in close co-operation with Car Free Citiesand the City of Bremen recognised the value of car sharing for environment protection airquality and sustainable urban development.
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5 - PROJECT DELIVERABLES
Deliverable 1.1 “Business & Technical Implementation Plan”
This deliverable is the project first document which shows how TOSCA consortium, mainlyATC, being the local partner organised the car-sharing scheme in Bologna.Work included:1. Detailed business planning2. User group identification3. Technical implementation preparation.
Before setting up a car sharing system in the city of Bologna, it was necessary to analyseother car sharing systems in Europe in order to have an overview of the state of art ofcurrent running systems. This implied providing a general definition of car sharing,understand tariff structures, analyse target groups, select vehicles typology, identify carsharing benefits and effects on mobility behaviour, determine environmental impacts,verify energy savings ect.
Some reference cases were necessary to understand the development process thatexisting car sharing systems have gone through both form an organisational andtechnological point of view in order to investigate how the service can be improved andimplemented.
“In 1987, the year of the first Car-Sharing co-operatives in Switserland, 30 membersshared two vehicles. Since that time, the supply of vehicles and the number of users havesky-rocketed: in 1993, there were a few more than 3,000 car sharers - today there aremore than 26,000. At the beginning – the technical standard has been:- telephone booking (often in co-operation with taxi-operators, hotels etc., which allows
the 24 hrs booking service)- mainly computerised booking- mechanical lockers adjacent to the cars (parked on reserved areas on legally private
ground)- logbook for mileage reporting.
The organisational background has been mainly local organisations e.g. clubs – often witha high environmental commitment (e.g. no private car allowed to members).Actual Standards of Car-Sharing: with the further development of information andcommunication technologies and the reduction in price level for hard- and software, mostof the Car-Sharing organisations use telematics for booking, access and data recording, -transmission and billing service.
Nowadays Car-Sharing organisation clients usually receive a smart card with a PIN numberand/or a safe key. A handbook gives an overview of the different vehicles available, thelocation of the stations and other information relevant to Car-Sharing use. Booking: Vehicles can be booked around the clock by telephone, in a growing number ofcases already also through the Internet. Reservations can be made spontaneously shortlybefore the beginning of the trip or days and weeks in advance. To book, the membership
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number, name, as well as time of the beginning and end of the desired journey must beprovided.
Traditionally the booking is done on the telephone – which allows bookings at anytime andfrom everywhere. The rise in mobile phones increases booking flexibility for the singleuser.
Currently internet-booking is becoming more and more implemented; through internet theuser can get more information directly (about vehicles, alternatives, locations etc.). Alsotrip-planner-information can be linked (so that the customer gets some information onhow to get to another station from his starting point by public transport, bike and walking.Internet booking means also less costs for the operator. The only disadvantage is that noteverybody has access to the Internet everywhere. With the development of the WirelessApplication Protocol (WAP) the advantage of the wide-spread mobile phone use can becombined with the advantages of the Internet but for ‘standard bookings’ the telephonewill still have the highest flexibility and the comparatively lowest costs for the user.
Access: The first solution was the mechanical locker, which contains the car key andgives space to roof racks, child seats and other equipment. This system is the cheapestone, but suitable only for operators with a low number of users. The main disadvantage isthe risk of loss and misuse. Technical development that allows access by a smart-card isbecoming the standard solution.ECS recommends a contactless smart card opening an intelligent locker or giving directaccess to the car. An intelligent locker is the most reasonable solution for locations withmany vehicles. It contains and controls the keys for all the cars. An active system canguarantee that only the key of the booked car can be used. An additional upcomingcomfort will be voice communication with the booking office which can be used forspontaneous booking. If there is a common standard of card-codes and acceptance, the user may get directaccess also the vehicles of partner organisations in other cities. The Mobility example ofSwitzerland is one example, the co-operation and merge between the Car-Sharingoperators of Bremen, Cologne and Aachen another one. Here the use of the smart-card inthe other cities is possible.Like the mechanical locker, the intelligent locker can contain roof rack, child seats andother facilities.For locations with only a few cars a standalone system is needed. An on-board-computerserves high flexibility, the costs per car are higher. Active control of the access is possiblebut requires very reliable data communication between booking office and the car.Driving A safe is situated at the station from which the vehicle has been booked, whichcan be opened with a key or a smart card and which contains the car keys.With specially equipped vehicles it is possible to open the cars directly with the smart card.These cars are equipped with an on-board computer, a communication unit (usuallymobile phone with SMS messages and a transponder field at the windscreen, display andmanual at the dashboard in the vehicle). The smart card is read via the transponder field,the data is checked and the doors are released. In this case, the on board computerrequires a PIN number before the immobilizer is released – and the ignition keys can beused (stored in the glove compartment).Before beginning a journey, the state of the car should also be quickly checked. If there isany sign of damage the head office has to be informed.
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Return: After the end of the trip, the vehicle is to be returned in the reserved space. Thecar keys are returned to the locker or needs to be put into the glove compartment of carsequipped with on-board computer. Cars have to locked via the smart-card at thetransponder field.At the beginning and at the end of the trip, the time and mileage records are kept on aform or electronically. In case of a logbook the original copy is placed in the car book. Thecarbon copy is kept by the member for crosschecks against the invoice. With the ongoing technical development, more and more Car-Sharing organisations useelectronic data recording in the car.
Billing: Data recording and transmission is the base of the billing. The user can put hisdata into a logbook. This way requires a lot of work for the operator and has a high risk ofmisuse. Automatic data recording an transmission means that a board-computer suppliesthe data via mobile phone to the operator. The use of the electronic system requires goodcommunication between vehicle and computer and between on-board-computer andhead-office.There the data can be related to the customer and summarised in a (monthly) bill. Themonthly bill lists the cost of every journey individually, with the time and distance used.
Organisational Background: More and more Car-Sharing organisations are runprofessionally for a bigger market. The organisations have often changed their legal statusto cope with the requirements (e.g. by change from Clubs to Ltd.). The introduction of thenew technologies and the expectations of the clients make it necessary to think aboutmore unified technical and operational standards”. 7
Furthermore the document shows how local public transport operators and car sharingcompanies, once competitors, can create partnership liaisons so to offer customers thepossibility to enjoy of a mobility service according to an overall intermodal concept.
“Through co-operation with Car-Sharing organisations, transit companies can add afurther link to the intermodal chain of services they offer. In the early morning/lateevening hours as well as on the periphery, the service provided by public transportation isoften less convenient than the use of one's own car. Here Car-Sharing can fill gaps andcontribute to the provision of "service packages" - attractive alternatives to motorisedindividual traffic (MIT). According to this strategy, the public transportation companysupplements its mobility service through partnership with Car-Sharing providers, and theadditional option enables to fulfil even the highly individual mobility needs of itscustomers.
A single, all-encompassing mobility service is an optimal means of binding customers. Thecustomer stays with the company which can make him complete mobility offers. Thetransit company can present itself as a service provider whose product line ranges frommass transportation to the organisation of individual travel routes.- In the long run, an adequate and qualitatively high-ranking offer of Car-Sharing
vehicles in connection with an efficient public transportation system can lead to thereduction of MIT. Studies have indicated that "genuine" new customers can be wonover to public transportation by these means. Through co-operation with public transit
7 ATC S.p.A.-Deliverable 1.1 “Business & technical Implementation Plan” pages 10-12
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companies and combined transport authorities, Car-Sharing organisations gain accessto a huge clientele
The objectives of Car-Sharing companies and those of public transportation providers arevery similar in fact they both aim at making traffic safer for the environment while at thesame time preserving individual mobility needs.8
The overview document shows how use of innovative technologies is a prerequisite forproviding services with a high level reliability as security is concerned as well as easyaccessibility.Moreover a successful setting up of a car sharing project firstly requires a detailed analysisof potential vehicles & locations, identification of target groups (end users) and asuccessful marketing strategy to ensure positive feedback from citizens
8 ATC S.p.A.-Deliverable 1.1 “Business & technical Implementation Plan” pages 13-14
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Deliverable 2.1“TOSCA Car sharing system”
This deliverable is a technical “handbook” which gives a deeper insight into the systemoperated by the ATC to run the car sharing service starting with 9 vehicles initially placedat three car sharing locations in the city centre area of Bologna and involving about 100customers.The hardware and software elements of the Car sharing organisation and thecommunication system (COCOS), were provided by INVERS. Further personalisation,adaptations have been introduced to respond to local requirements.In the Bologna pilot application, COCOS helped to provide a reliable, user-friendly andefficient car sharing management by setting up an electronic car sharing booking andaccounting system, transferring trip data from car sharing vehicles to the booking centre(for accounting and fleet management purposes), using contactless smart cards to controluser’s access to vehicles and by integrating car sharing and public transport information.The following elements were implemented for the car sharing system in the city ofBologna:� COCOS 2000 Software for administration, booking and accounting functions. (The
billing system set at ATC are also characterised by an OCR system which allows tostore automatically information about car trips such as taken kms, run hours) SMARTcars are, in fact, equipped with a logbook containing specific forms that will have to befilled out by each car-sharing customer before starting his trip in order to recordmileage, time and possible anomalies of the vehicle).
� Communication system between cars and operative centre including GSM-basedonboard computers (Standalone System) for highly flexible car sharing location foreach car sharing vehicle;
� Contactless smartcards for customer identification and keyless entry;� CocoWeb server software for reservation via Internet.
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The following diagram is an overview of the system conception.
CUCMCommunikatio
Serve
CocoWEBInternet
Reservatio
CocoWAPWAP-R i
???OwnR tiClients
CocoVoiceVoiceR Reservatio
CocoLiteRemote-OWorkstatio
Keymanager
BordcomputerStandalone-System
PSTN orGSM
GSM
Reservation-D
Trip-Data
COCOS System overall view
BordcomputerKeymanager-System
AdminServerInterface for externalAd i i t ti
ReServerTCP/IP
ReservatioServe
CocoBossmaster data -d i i i
CocoBookreservation and
h d l
CocoBillaccounting
dlogbook
TCP/Iconnect
Local Area Network(LAN)
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The Standalone System requires no technical ground infrastructure at the locations whichis undoubtedly a flexible and economical solution for car sharing organisations with only afew cars per site. Typical applications are in fact company carpools branched at variouslocations and widely distributed de-centralised car sharing locations.The COCOS Standalone System gives direct keyless entry to the car with the COCOScontactless smart card. Customers are just required to approach their smart card in frontof the windshield card reader (Fig.1).
Car doors unlock only when the customer has made due reservation. The exchange ofreservation data between COCOS reservation centre and the onboard computer isperformed at a cost efficient GSM Short Message Service. As additional security feature,the immobiliser is released only if the customer enters the correct PIN number on thekeyboard of the onboard computer.(Fig.2-3)
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The onboard computer, during trips, automatically records distance and time. At the endof each trip, the onboard computer transmits the recorded trip data via GSM ShortMessage Service to the billing office. Based on these data, the car sharing accountingsoftware (CocoBill) calculates a detailed invoice.
ATC vehicles have been equipped with a logbook that each user is asked to fill in beforestarting his trip. All details are entered into a database through an optical readerautomatic system and then compared to the data provided from the OBC (On boardcomputer). This was a useful device for crosschecks in case of discrepancies between dataprovided by car sharing customers and the accounting system.
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ATC provided his customers with personalised smart cards where user personal detailssuch as name, surname have been indicated. Moreover it carries the logos of thecompany, Car Atc service, Bologna Municipality and the EC flag.
� System InstallationThe implementation of the system was performed in two main steps:
� Backoffice System COCOS 2000 installation on a single PC for test operations;
� Onboard computers installation.
� Installation of Backoffice Software� Installation included call centre and administration centre, COCOS 2000 software for
administration, booking and accounting and CocoWeb software for reservation viaInternet.
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The first picture shows the original project plan without following adaptations to Bolognalocal requirements.
The scheme below is the first conception of Bologna system.
SERVER
GSM-M odem
ISDN PCAnywhere
CocoBILL
CocoBOSS
CocoW EB
CUCM
CocoCONF
DATA
CocoBOOK
ReServer
IIS
LANNetwork-Adaptor
LAN-CallcenterWorkstation (Standard)
CocoLITE
CocoCONF
Intranet-User
BrowserACCESS 97
Windows NT 4.0
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The scheme below shows the current module used for Bologna car sharing service, themain server placed at the local taxi operator, being the call centre, operative 24/24.
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Installation of car-related hardware: The COCOS Standalone System with GSM onboard computer and smart card readers wereinstalled in nine car sharing vehicles.It is composed by:� 1 On board computer main unit� 1 Terminal (with display and keyboard)� 1 Immobiliser FinTronic� 1 Card reader antenna� 1 Keyholder with datakey and fixing device � 1 Siemens M20 GSM radio module with antenna� 1 Odomiter Kiensle
GSM Network
CUCMand Reservation
System SMS Service Center(GSM Network Provider)
Immobilizer
Engine
DoorlockingSystem
Onboardcomputer (OBC)
Card reader antenna
GSM Modem
GSM-Antenna
Key Bracket
Ignition Key
Data-Key
Reservation and Billing System
Car and Onboardcomputer Equipment
GSM Modem
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Electric scheme
To operate the cars with the standalone system the following requirements were given:
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� central door locking system,� GSM contract � Sufficient GSM field strength at the locationThe top page scheme, was a very useful tool for installing the nine on board computerssuccessfully. Moreover INVERS trained ATC staff on how to install the onboard computer componentsby explaining their functions. First car OBC was then installed in close co-operation withINVERS supervision & first tests made in combination with the Reservation Centre inGermany.After installing and setting up first onboard computers, instructions on how to enter thecar-related data into CocoBoss databases were given and all functions tested.Several internal tests were experienced through bookings and simulations to solve possibleinconveniences that could occur to pilot users during car sharing real life operations.Tests were among a restricted number of ATC employees. Important and significantinformation were collected from their experience and the results gained exploited fortuning–up both the cars and the OBC (on board computer). These information were thentransferred to the “real car-sharing users” in order to prevent problems from arising duringreal running service.ATC checked the system operation in internal use for 5 weeks, during this time INVERSassisted via telephone and e-mail hotline. No system adaptations were made by INVERS,only the tariff model was adapted according to the requirements of ATC.
First user testDuring the test period only ATC members tested the system and the cars had no seriousfailures were reported. A first user sample was involved to test the service for 2-4 weeks.Their experience was evaluated and used as a feedback for the last adaptations beforestarting the operational phase. During this phase, also the call centre staff benefited ofthis experience for real life operations.
To sum up Smart cars were tested for a 5 weeks time before the piloting started. Morethan 200 trips were taken, about 20 sample users from ATC staff experienced the systemas well as the vehicles refuelling was carried out with the original prepaid cards.Both the communication software CUCM 32 and the hardware highlighted no particularproblem.
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Deliverable 6.1“TOSCA web site”
Activities undertaken during the TOSCA life time have been duly published into the projectweb pages.The web site, which develops into two main branches, respectively addressed to carsharing operators and users, aims at disseminating project results and achievements.A schematic representation of bespoke project web sites and relevant links plus detaileddescription of their contents is hereafter provided.
COCO Systemimages
Annex
Maps of cityand schemes
Deliverable 1.1
Deliverables
Eup 2001Home Page
Tosca Web Site - Map
COCO Systemimages
Annex
Maps of cityand schemes
service contract [PDF]
Public deliverables
COCO Systemimages
Various PDFFiles
User needs
Partners and followers
BremenWorkshop
Official projectbrochure [PDF]
Various newspaperarticles
Userpresentation
Brochure
Brochure
Dissemination
ToscaHome page
www.atc.bo.itMain ATC Site
CarATC Web Site - Map
www.caratc.itCarATC Web Site
ATC web site
CarATC web site - Italian only version
English web pages documents
Italian web pages documents
Pages duplicated
Other deliverables
www.atc.bo.it/tosca
www.atc.bo.it
www.atc.bo.it/caratc
www.caratc.bo.it
www.atc.bo.it/eup2001
Info site Info site
Booking site
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ATC home page
Basic information concerning the TOSCA project and the car sharing service for Bolognaare accessible from the main ATC web site: (www.atc.bo.it)The site provides general information about ATC and about the services offered:-Public Transport services (Timetables, fares, route plans)-Parking regularisation.
The mentioned site, mostly in Italian language, is managed by ATC s.p.a.-Bologna and ispresently hosted at a local provider.
From the main ATC web site it is possible to access to the TOSCA public web site(www.atc.bo.it/tosca) and to the information of Bologna car sharing service(www.atc.co.it/caratc) called CARATC.
The main ATC web site only replicates the informative pages of “CARATC” web site whichwill enable car sharing service reservations management.
It is possible to access to the bespoke site from the following address(www.atc.bo.it/caratc), directly from the press button, or from the link “Caratc” on theweb site home page.
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Tosca project web sites
The main project web site developed for public usage is offered in English language and isaccessible from the following address: (www.atc.bo.it/tosca) or directly by clicking on thelink “Tosca” from the web site home page.
The site develops into different pages that give an overall view of the project(deliverables, consortium, dissemination activities). In particular it contains all non-restricted documents, information about partners and followers involved in the projectsuch as companies profile and key persons CVs.The web site updates and papers publication will run in parallel with submission of projectdeliverables to the European Commission.
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Dissemination information as press conference articles, newspapers, workshopsproceedings, project’s brochures will also be available on the site
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Furthermore a specific project web site restricted to the European Commission and to theConsortium members has been developed. The site completely in English language can bevisited from the address (www.atc.bo.it/eup2001).It groups all working papers, confidential information and project non- public deliverables.From this site home page is possible to have a direct link to the public web site.
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CARATC web site
This site (www.caratc.bo.it) gives complete and detailed car sharing information andenables all customers enrolled to the car sharing club to make their own reservationsdirectly from the Internet. Reservations are also possible via call centre.This web site named CARATC (www.caratc.bo.it) has been entirely realised in Italianlanguage and is basically addressed to car sharing service users.Screen shots below show the graphical interfaces which allow reservations to car sharingservice.The first step to take, after connection, for safety reasons, is to enter the customer andpersonal identity numbers (PIN).
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The following screen shots appear and the fields can be appropriately filled out:
If the connection is successfully achieved, the system acknowledges the user details andthe booking can carry on.
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The booking can take place in three different steps:
� Parking area selection,� vehicle selection,� Reservation starting and ending time.
Reservation is then confirmed and concluded.
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Car sharing booking modalities
There are two different modalities for booking:� Via call centre:
� Cocobook for the system manager with complete check on all data and throughgraphical interface with mouse;
� Cocolite for operators with only keyboard use only limited to basic bookingactivities.
� Via internet
The call centre, either the Cocobook programme or Cocolite, requires the customernumber and if correct it records personal details and telephone number.Afterwards, for the Cocobook programme, a screen shot shows the current parkingsituation (vehicles state) and asks to select a free one just by clicking the mouse.For the cocolite programme it is generally necessary to follow up with the keyboard only(the mouse is however active) and the reservation takes place by means of a simplifiedoption list which allows to use the numbered press button for higher speediness reasons.
The images below represent the graphical interfaces of the booking administrator.
COCOLITE SCREEN SHOT
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COCOBOOK SCREEN SHOT DURING RESERVATION
In case of a vehicle already booked or still in use, the system rejects the operation.The operational procedure follows the computer requests by inviting the customer torepeat the reservation before confirming it.The operator holds on the line until the gsm modem sends the message. This is shown bythe changing shape of the icons in the cocobook graph and in the cocolite text box.
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Developments
ATC is now operating a specific national web site on mobility:www.mobilitymanagement.it, which is an access point for public transport companies andusers.The site is accessible enable other cities willing to join the main mobility actors to createpartnerships with them such as:� “Clickmobility”,� “Club Italia”,� UITP,� ASSTRA.
The site will have a link addressed to all car-sharing services for private users andcompanies and other innovative services managed by ATC.The site will be basically developed in Italian Language.
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Deliverable 5.1
The project foresees that a group of European cities( Barcelona, Bucharest, Strasbourg)develop a car sharing system within their countries by learning from the experience gainedat ATC Bologna.The feasibility study will allow each of the selected cities to analyse and verify that asimilar solution can comply with mobility needs and requirements of their local customers.During the project life time ATC provided, indeed, all necessary tools and guidelines onhow to develop a business study and how to check that all preconditions to set up a carsharing application could be fully satisfied.
Deliverable 5.1“Strasbourg Implementation & Business Plan”
� Strasbourg conurbation and transport policy
Strasbourg is a French city with a population of about 255000 and 27 suburban villages,which, together form the Strasbourg Conurbation (population, 435000).
Strasbourg is the seat of the European Parliament and several other European Institutions.It is also an important business, administrative and tertiary capital with an active role inresearch and education (50000 students). In the Conurbation, more than 50000 jobs areheld by non-residents. These characteristics necessitate commuting within the city, the conurbation and thedepartment. Most of the commuting is done by car, the peak hours corresponding to officehours. For 10 years, Strasbourg has implemented transportation means re-balancing policies,achieving a number of results. Now car-sharing appears as an innovative and pragmaticsolution for helping transportation means cohabit. Car-sharing clashes with the car as anindividualist symbol, and is an assertion of solidarity, of space and resource sharing.
� Implementation and business plan
Strasbourg has started car-sharing in an experimental way, in January 2001, with threecars in one location.
Based on this experiment and a market survey that shows that car-sharing meets a needand is likely to grow, a new car sharing system is under consideration, based on the rapidsetting up of a network of stations and a system based on new technologies (COCO’Ssystem from INVERS is ordered). Strasbourg, based on the co-operation between publicand private partners, plans to establish a network of 50 vehicles in the territory of its city,within 3 years. Before the end of 2002, 20 cars will be available in six or seven locations.
� Potential car-sharing targets
Based on the market study, there are three car sharing target populations. Thesepopulations were selected based on three separate non exclusive criteria.The 25/35 age bracket : towards a new generation of car users ?The surveys and the figures collected from current users show that car-sharing interestsmainly people in the 25/45 age bracket, the heart of the target being the 25/35 age
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bracket, with 1/3 stating their interest in car sharing. It is also the average age ofAuto’trement members
Further analysis shows that this generation is less addicted to cars (a fraction does notown any yet), or has a distant attitude towards the car.Using a cigarette comparison, it is easier to not start owning a car than quitting.
� Central area and strongly urbanised area inhabitants
Inhabitants of central areas and areas with a strong urban density are also the targets ofcar-sharing. Parking lot in those areas is for a fee and the number of spaces way underthe demand. The pedestrianisation of the city centre and growing use of publictransportation makes it easier for these people to manage without a car.However, the survey shows that some areas and suburbs are also interested in car-sharingand that it could be interesting to set up stations there to develop a local area mobilityservice. People are ready to walk between 5 and 10 minutes to reach a car location.
� Frequent users of multi-modal transportation
Car-sharing users are people who already combine several means of transportation :bicycle, public transportation, trains, cars.Car-sharing should be of interest to those supporters of multi-modality.
Based on the above non exclusive criteria, it is possible to say that a 30 year old person,living in a central area and used to multi-modality is in the heart of the car-sharing target.
� Integration within the public transport system
Experience and the participation in the TOSCA project have confirmed that car sharing iscomplementary to the public transport offer in Strasbourg. It is therefore an integral partof the transport offer and the transport network and can only be developed as such.
The integration within the public transport system was possible little by little as it is a mid-term project, although co-operation and co-ordination already exist, as proved by thefollowing facts:- Places made available in the P + R car parks for cars used in car sharing,- Preferential tariffs for those who use more than one means of transport (CTS season
ticket holders, those renting bicycles or electric cars etc.). Furthermore a combinedtariff between public transport and car-sharing has been defined. A communication andadvertising campaign will be led in June 2002.
� Car-sharing locations
Two types of stations will be set up :
- Inter-modal stations, in the vicinity of public transportation systems (train, tram,…)
- Local stations in various areas with high car-sharing potentials.
� A French network of car-sharing
In addition to the concept of city network and meshing, the concept is emerging of aFrench network, both to offer a networked service and to share the costs associated with
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setting up a car fleet management system based on new technologies. Cities suchMarseille, Grenoble, Lyon, have already joined this network.
� Expected results
Obviously, the expected result is a reduction in the number of parked cars, but also areduction in polluting emissions, based on a shift of transportation structures towardspublic transportation and other alternative transportation means. That is the mainoutcome expected from car-sharing : raising the users’ environmental awareness andshowing that it is possible to move about in an intelligent, environment friendly way in thecity of Strasbourg.
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Deliverable 5.1“Bucharest Implementation & Business Plan”
Within transport modernisation initiative in Bucharest were elaborated studies and projectsin order to improve the infrastructure and to adapt the transport facilities to the increasingdemand. Promotion initiative and new mobility concept implementation – car sharing –encouraged by UE through IST Program, offered Bucharest the opportunity to study andto find the most efficient solutions for system implementation tacking into account thespecific conditions of a transforming economy. The Bremen and Bologna best practice willconstitute the basement for system implementation in Bucharest. After pilot project,Bucharest could find some specific solutions – options for an East – European city whichcould be disseminated into region.The inhabitants’ availability to use the Car Sharing system implies a certain social,economic and cultural development which could have visible effects in those areas withhigh population density and the urban space could not be extended in order to increasethe mobility rate.The spectacular development of intelligent communication and processing data offerssafety and attractiveness of the system.The Municipality could use this system as a modality to promote certain environmentalfriendly transport vehicles that could influence both better travel scheduling and socialbehaviour.The implementation of a car-sharing scheme in Bucharest will contribute to achievementof several transports system modernisation such as:� efficient land use management;� keeping up mobility rate;� increased life quality;� integration of all transport modes;� creation of a modern travel attitude.
The first part of the study comprises global analyses over the mobility within Bucharestarea and its metropolitan area, taking into account the demographic, economic, urbanismand environmental data.
There were established the study and implementation areas of a car sharing systemimplementation in Bucharest relying on direct and indirect research.
For having a comprehensive image of solution’s feasibility, these research areas werechosen taking into consideration high population density, even there is a small carownership rate, but the average educational level is high.
The previous research results revealed that for the pilot project of the car sharingorganisation we have enough persons, which have the availability to join it. Anyway, wehave to consider some supplementary financial resources in order to prevent thedisadvantageous situation form the economic beginning period of the project.
A car sharing service makes vehicles available in a way that facilitates multiple users foreach vehicle. Car sharing is often promoted as an alternative to vehicle ownership byproviding the convenience normally associated with owning a vehicle. As an alternative tovehicle ownership, car sharing can be environmentally beneficial as it requires less parkingand discourages inappropriate auto travel with a pay-per-use structure. To be
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commercially and environmentally successful, car sharing needs to offer a service that isseen as "better" than car ownership for a large enough number of people.
Being a part of TOSCA consortium as a follower city, RATB studied the possibility toimplement this new concept in Bucharest. Therefore, the first step was made designing aresearch in order to have both the peoples’ perception about car sharing idea and apreliminary dimension of a car sharing organisation in Bucharest.Four selected study areas are representative for the city structure. Criteria for making the research in those 4 areas are:� car ownership rate, � parking possibility, visibility and vehicle protection, � the number of companies’ offices� the public transport network density
The assessment of public acceptanceThe research was designed in order to find out which kind of car sharing organisation ismost desirable and which people will join a car sharing organisation by making choices inhypothetical situations.
Survey with specialistsThe survey focused on quantitative and qualitative aspects as following:
� the advantages and disadvantages of joining a car sharing organisation� the characteristics of the potential users/members � the most suitable organisation type� the possibility to integrate with public transport� the main media channels for information� the barriers in car sharing implementation and the solutions for them
The respondents were specialists from public transport field, but also from traffic and ITSdomain, from Car Romanian Association, rent-a-car companies, car leasing and sales, taxicompanies, tourism, banking and assurance systems, local administration, appliedpsychology for public transport etc.Everyone considers the car sharing concept a feasible solution, having advantages, suchas:
� no initial investment for having a car� no maintenance costs which implies both financial and time savings� the possibility to use a car for those who cannot afford one� safe parking spaces.
Focus groupThe purpose of applying the focus group method was to explore the mechanisms, whichcan found out new segments. The transport behaviour, the car-sharing perception and thecharacteristics of a car-sharing system were investigated.
Before running a car sharing scheme the following aspects were taken on board inBucharest feasibility study.� Organisation type� Subsidy
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� Vehicle type� Deposit fee� Application fee� Kilometre fee� Hourly fee� Monthly fee
ResultsFrom the results of the research we can conclude that most respondents made manly tripsfrom and to the office, shopping and leisure. Those households that have importantincomes make more trips, according to the figures. The possibility to include the studentsas an important segment it is very low, therefor the marketing strategies will be not somuch focused to this segment as much as other European cities were interested in.
For implementation of a car sharing system in Bucharest the marketing strategies appliedin other cities will be taken into account, considering the local specific and the results ofthe market research carried out. Anyway, these strategies will be adjusted depending onthe results of the implementation.
Potential Location IdentificationThe ultimate market potential of car sharing is difficult to predict. European experienceindicates that car sharing can be useful to a wide range of consumers, including manyrelatively wealthy households that avoid owning a second or third vehicle.
Car sharing requires a sufficient number of users within convenient walking and cyclingdistance of where vehicles are parked, and is most effective in areas with good travelalternatives.
It is difficult to estimate demand for new markets, new technologies and new attributeswhen customers have no experience with those products and attributes. Determining thedemand for shared cars is especially difficult because it implies some reorganisation of ahousehold’s travel patterns and lifestyle. People use and view their cars in many differentways that are poorly understood.
Organisational structure of RATB Car Sharing Department
Regarding the organisational structure, two operating alternatives have been examined:using a specialised staff providing this service; using intelligent systems for reservation,billing and communication, requiring consequently minimum staff.
Based on the international experience, where many car-sharing organisations supportedinitially governments’ grants, and taking into account that the structure of a publictransport operator offers suitable conditions for an efficient car sharing system, weconsider suitable an implementation of a car sharing system within RATB companyoffering vehicle scheduling in advance and even at the last moment, a rational distributionand location of the cars in accordance with the demand, quick information processedthrough the reservation system, providing vehicles at different hours or different locationswhen desired hours/locations are not available, and 24-hour reservation serviceavailability.
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Technical assessmentVehicles for the car share organisation will be, for the first year, compact to mid-sizesedans. In the future the fleet mix will also include some station wagons in order to meeta broader range of members’ needs.
Moreover the use of advanced technologies is the key to satisfying customers andmanaging the systems.For our car-sharing organisation we established an optimal configuration, adapted to ourneeds, for the communication and database management system.
Socio-economic and political assessmentAs a result of RATB’s involvement, and also as a follower in TOSCA project, BucharestMunicipality and decision-makers provide us with their entire support. This is bothmanagerial and political support for experimentation of the car sharing system. RATB haselaborated a report for the management and decision-makers about the car-sharingsystem comprising a detailed description of it. A very positive reaction was showed fromdecision-makers.
From TOSCA experience it has been learnt the main steps for establishing a car sharingorganisation. The TOSCA best practice will help especially in marketing and technicalissues. Therefore this project could make us to consider a better public transportinfrastructure with better travel planning, and more efficient use of vehicles in order toobtain major environmental benefits.
Bucharest, as a first Eastern European city which studies a car sharing application throughRATB, the implications, and effects of a car sharing organisation for the city, and itsinhabitants. We studied the feasibility, environmental effects of car sharing, the potentialof car sharing and the obstacles of introducing car sharing in Bucharest.Like all new businesses, the costs and benefits for running such a business could only beestimated, and many of them are based on data from experienced car sharing operatorsand specific marketing research and feasibility study.Bucharest took into consideration a typical fare scheme (application fee, membershipdeposit, monthly membership fee, per hour fee, and a per km fee) for a car sharingorganisation, but we also intend to study some other fare structures (e.g. a mixed feebetween per hour fee and per km fee).
Social aspectsThe advantages of car sharing can be divided into two categories: mobility benefits andefficiency benefits.
For Bucharest impacts and implications of a car sharing organisation is mostlyunpredictable, at this time. The lack of experience and the innovative idea of car sharing,it makes difficult for us to anticipate the user’s reaction, and the social implication at largescale of car sharing in Bucharest.
According to the feasibility study results, an estimated car sharing system in Bucharestwith 60 vehicles has 535 members, running for a 6 year period approx. 7,000,000 km. Thetotal cost induced is of 1,078,602 EUR, with a breakeven point of about 74%, obtaining atariff/km of about 0.120 EUR, corresponding with the results of the market research. Thecar-sharing solution will be feasible in Bucharest taking into account the present
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conditions. This report could be the basis for a car sharing implementation and itsdevelopment in Bucharest.
Marketing strategies- posters and brochures;- RATB WEB site;- local newspapers;- television;- direct contacts.
Pricing Strategies- different offers;- facilities for public transport users;- discounts.
Service Strategies- high performance vehicles; - increased availability;- parking locations.
Distribution Strategies- reliability in reserving;- rapid access to the system
Within last months of the project, and following the official ending date of the project,RATB made some important steps in order to implement the car-sharing concept inBucharest.
One of the main steps in order to accustom our inhabitants to the new mobility concept isthe inclusion into RATB’s web page the information regarding the car-sharing initiative.The visitors could find basic information regarding the concept, the proposal for locationsand an application form for those who want to join a car sharing organisation. They couldalso receive some information related to their specific requests.
Related to the marketing campaign for concept implementation, some information wereprovided in the main media channels with local and national coverage.
Around the Car sharing locations, leaflets and application forms were distributed (after 6th
of May), as another important step made in order to establish contacts with those who willjoin the car sharing organisation.
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Deliverable 5.1“Barcelona Implementation & Business Plan”
Barcelona is politically committed to promote this initiative as part of the goals of theCommission on Urban Sustainability and Ecology as a ‘follower city’. The City Counciltogether with the Metropolitan Transport Company of Barcelona (TMB) and theAssociation for the Promotion of Public Transport (PTP) are striving jointly towards thisend.
The role of the administrations is to collaborate in facilitating the financing of the initialstarting up phase, and in a second phase, to facilitate certain logistic elements, and helpthe market of potential customers to hear of the new product.
The public transport companies have a key role to play, as Car-Sharing promotes thecombined use of different mobility systems. Public transport must introduce an attractiveprice policy to stimulate its use by members of Car-Sharing, as has been done in otherplaces.
The success of Car-Sharing is based on the fact that in this way of using cars, theimportant thing is not to use a certain kind of transport but to use transport with respectto the optimal cost/ service. It is for this reason that the concept of combined mobility hasbeen introduced, which is set against the traditional vision of a single form of transport.From this new point of view, all transport systems are put on the table before a journeybegins: by Car-Sharing car, public transport, on foot or by bicycle.
Organisational formula
It is necessary to contemplate the two possible formulae that might be used to constitutethe service management company: a Co-operative of Consumers and Users or aFoundation.
Types of users:
� MembersMembers are the physical or juridical persons that are permanently linked with the projectin order to encourage its running, and have advantages when using the service, such asguaranteed availability of the vehicle, no billing for the first three hours of use of the car,etc... They make an initial contribution of capital in order to guarantee the viability of theservice, which they will be returned when they leave the service, less a small discount tocover the cost of subscription.� BeneficiariesThe figure of the Beneficiary is created, which without having to make the initial provisionbecause they live with a member, may enjoy the same advantages. � Particulars (Physical persons)There are people who wish to make use of it because of its advantages and profitability,without there being a permanent relationship. This category of user will pay an annualquota for having a car when they need one. However, because they do not have a morepermanent commitment, they will not be able to enjoy all of the additional advantagesenjoyed by Members and beneficiaries.
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� Enterprises (Juridical persons)We are convinced that the viability of the system opens a market of possible customersamong public and private companies and organisations and it is therefore also necessaryto open a line of service for them for whenever they wish to use the service, both toreplace their permanent fleets of vehicles (sales teams, technicians, repair personnel etc.)and in a more sporadic way in accordance with their specific needs, to go to towns wherethey have to attend customers and where they do not have offices.� Location of the carsCars will be parked in different car parks around the territory, depending on a distributionmodel that will be regularly updated to improve their location and on the geographicallocation of our members and beneficiaries. The model will be complemented by the detailsobtained from users in general to propose changes in location in order to always be asclose as possible to orders. � Booking Users will make their bookings by telephone or Internet as far in advance as possible toguarantee that the system can attend the demand in the best possible conditions.Conversations or emails of the bookings will be kept for three months to be able to dealwith any possible claim. The hours that the vehicles are used must be fulfilled in continuous, complete periods infractions of half an hour. Should a user wish to return the car before time, he must notifythe system immediately. In the event of delay in returning the car, it will also benecessary to give immediate forewarning, and if this is not done, a surcharge will beapplied of a certain amount per hour of delay.Access to the carsWhen users receive confirmation of the assignment of a vehicle, they are given its numberand geographical location. Users will be in possession of a user card and will go to look forthe car, and will be able to get the keys to the vehicle with the same card. Once inside thecar, they will place the card in a special reader that will release the engine and allow it tobe started. It will later be the same apparatus that provides the information to the systemfor invoicing purposes.
� UseWhile using the vehicles, users agree to do so with the utmost care and skill, complyingwith the instructions of the manufacturer and checking the pressure of the tyres, oil levels,brakes, etc. All damage caused as a result of misuse will be the object of an additionalsurcharge. In the case of members, it must be remembered that this is a (small) part oftheir own wealth.Vehicles must be returned in a good state of hygiene and leaving them closed and readyto be used again.� InvoicingInvoicing will be carried out according to the established rates. Invoices will be made outin terms of the kilometres done and by hours of use. Members and beneficiaries will beentitled to discounts and no charge will be made to them on the first three hours of use.Once the amounts to be invoiced are known and the invoice has been sent to the user,payment will be made from an account where the customer will have placed a standingorder.
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� The collaboration of public transport companiesAs we have already said in several sections of this study, public transport companies musttake part decisively in order to achieve the success of the project. It is these companiesthat have most to gain with the changes that car sharing causes in the mobility habits ofpeople who become customers. This should allow members of Car-Sharing to be givendiscounts on public transport season tickets. This collaboration would imply the clear willof the public authorities to become involved, to lay a firm, decided stake in the project tocreate Car-Sharing.� The collaboration of the administrationsThe support of the administrations is vital for the viability of the project. Given theadvantages that the system supposes for the whole of society, the administrations mustpromote the use of the service. There is a particular need for support at the time ofsetting up until a sufficient critical mass of members is formed to enable the project tosupport itself. The political will of the administrations must be shown with political commitments such asthe following:
� Recommendation to public and private transport companies to set up discountsfor users of the system when they purchase tickets, such as season tickets,which guarantee the continued use of public transport, in order to make theconcept of “combined mobility” effective as described in previous sections of thisstudy.
� To facilitate the granting of lines of financing.
� To provide suitable places to park the vehicles.
� To provide a premises at a low price where the Car-Sharing manager may set up
its offices.
� To ensure that the administrative services depending on them are able to usethe Car-Sharing services for certain activities, if they are required to do so.
Nowadays, our politicians have all the necessary information (the Economical FeasibilityPlan, the Market Research and the Legal Study) in order to make the decision
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Deliverable 3.1“ Operation & Results Measurement”
This deliverable can be considered as the document which gives a detailed overview ofBologna pilot application “CARATC” both from an organisational point of view as well asfirst operation results.
Bologna: pilot application
ATC-Bologna appreciated the opportunity provided from the European Commission toestablish in the City of Bologna a car sharing scheme as an added value service not onlyto public transport customers but to all citisen, private users included. The desire, indeed,to offer this modern mobility solution is mainly addressed at discouraging private vehiclesusers that undoubtedly generate traffic and cause pollution.Bologna decided to take up one of the northern European experiences such as theBremen’s one and tried to replicate the car-sharing solution both from and organisational& technological point of view. Obviously different approaches have been taken intoaccount as dealing with a diverse social & political reality.Consistent support was provided by the City of Bremen in terms of marketing strategies,organisational solutions, technological expertise, economical & environmental benefitsanalysis as well as advice on prospects of car sharing choice along the future.Before starting with the real life operation different steps had to be taken and differentaspects analysed and evaluated.A detailed business plan included:
� Identification of suitable locations, � Strategic marketing campaign� Analysis of target groups,� Confirmation of technical components ( Call centre, Administration centre, smart
card)� Selection of vehicles � Definition of tariff structure
The feasibility study was mainly aimed at verifying that all necessary preconditions to setup the car sharing were fully satisfied.
Identification of suitable locationsFour car-sharing parking locations have been realised in the historical centre.See below the reasons for opting for the following parking areas:P.za Roosevelt :� Situated in the very “heart” of the historical city centre,� Very crowded area due to its central position, very close to Bologna Municipality and
law-court offices� Business areaP.za VII Novembre 1944:� Close to the main railway station� Situated on the main� Access road from the North� Area of high� population density
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Via Zanolini:� Located in the university area� Close to the S.Vitale railway station and “Sant’ Orsola” hospitalP.za di Porta Saragozza� Close to engineering faculty� Few parking spaces� available (esp. Difficult for private vehicles)� highly populated area
From a technical point of view no fixed structure is required at the car sharing locations. In order to delimit public ground for car sharing signposts, ATC, in accordance withBologna Municipality agreed to equip each location by means of specific road marking &signs.
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Below you find a prototype of the parking area elements which have been dulypersonalised according to the company image.
Real life location
� Strategic marketing campaignIn order to recruit available pilot users for the whole experimentation phase, a focusedmarketing campaign aiming at promoting the initiative and identifying the highest numberof potential categories belonging to different working categories. was undertaken.
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The campaign was carried out by means of posters and leaflets advertisement at the busstops & on board, radio & television broadcasting, personal letters addressed to students,associations of categories, direct contacts. Once those contacts were achieved, ATC staffprovided to enquire into depth on the real willingness of potential customers to use car-sharing.
� Analysis of target groupsThe investigation was conducted by submitting a users needs analysis questionnaire. Thequestionnaire basically examined user’s shift characteristics: age classes, profession, sex,reasons for opting for this transport modality( e.g. shopping, work, sport), prediction ofpossible service needs in terms of daily, weekly shifts; this was obviously done taking intoaccount the parking areas positions.Many were the respondents (about 300). The survey results have outlined the profile ofthe user typology:Male, aged 21-35 years, professions (Employee, student, freelancer)
� Confirmation of technical components (Call centre, Administration centre,Smart card)
The hardware and software elements used for the car-sharing organisation and thecommunication system (COCOS), is provided by INVERS and it is one of the transferparameters used during the project lifetime. This system was selected as it does notrequire any fixed installation on the ground, consequently high flexibility is ensured. COCOS 2000 is a software for administration, booking and accounting. The communicationsystem between cars and operative centre includes:
- GSM-based on-board computers (
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- Contactless smart cards for customer identification, keyless entry and vehicleaccess control
- CocoWeb web server software for reservation via Internet.
� Selection of vehiclesSMART vehicle choice was for double reasons : its reduced dimensions and the lowemissions consumption (eco-diesel). In the next future, if the piloting will produce the expected outcome, other vehiclescategories will be provided.
� Definition of tariff structureThe fee structure, a simplified one, has been calculated according to mileage and time ofuse. Each driven km costs 1,29 Euro, each hour booked costs 0,26 Euro.The tariff is valid both at day and at night, on working days as well as Sundays.
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CARATC & REAL LIFE OPERATION
CarAtc service is fully operative Since 18th June 2001 with eight Smart cars fleet whichhave been located, in four city locations (2 vehicles each). One car was left at ATC internalstaff disposal.All vehicles have been equipped with a logbook (fig.1) each user is asked to fill in beforestarting his trip. Records are kept to allow crosschecks should discrepancies between datadeclared by the customer and the accounting system arise.
(fig.1)
Each car is also equipped with a refuelling card (Fig.2) which enables users to refuel thevehicle at specific petrol pumps. A map of petrol pump stations list has been provided aswell.
(fig.2)
Users have been provided with personal smart cards (Fig.3) and entered into the systemdatabase.
(Fig.3)
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DATA MEASUREMENT
All data concerning car sharing real life operations were registered by ATC & INVERSservice both, automatically through the system and manually.
Users data
The table below, shows synthetically all main information of car sharing in terms ofqualified users (those who have signed the contract & have requested bank authorisation“RID” to bill on their account), real users (actual customers) run kms, total hoursreservations, numbers of bookings per location, average of daily users, booked hours &run kms.The table indicates mentioned monthly information covering period from June 2001 toDecember 2001. The total column gives an overview of the figures for the whole pilot.Note that the “real users” data expresses the actual number of car sharing customers, 58different nominative used CarAtc until December.Data recorded by the system were delivered by Invers9
*Location operative since July 2001
9 Ref. Deliverable 3.1
December November October September August July June total from 01-06-2001Qualified users 97 96 88 80 65 58 50 97Real users 27 35 31 22 20 16 23 58
Run Kms 1031 2115 2456 2688 1527 1161 1402 12380
Total hoursti
210 322,5 387 376,5 200 167,5 243 1906,5
Users average/day 1,84 2,53 2,65 2,30 1,52 1,42 1,85 2,01Booked hours average/day 6,77 10,75 12,48 12,55 6,45 5,40 9,35 9,11Run kms average/day 33,26 70,5 79,23 89,60 49,26 37,45 53,92 59,03
Total reservations 57 76 82 69 47 44 49 424P.zza VII Novembre (P.ta Lame) 21 25 25 25 18 11 21 146Via Zanolini 15 15 24 25 23 18 22 142P.zza Roosevelt 20 25 17 9 0 9 6 86P.zza P.ta Saragozza* 1 11 16 10 6 6 0 50
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Vehicles usage
243167,5 200
376,5 387322,5
210
050
100150200250300350400450
June July August September October November December
Months
hour
s
The graph above outlines the curve of car sharing use along the piloting phase on bookingtime basis. A relevant growth of reservations is registered during months September-October while a remarkable decrement is shown between July & August.
This tendency can be partially ascribed to the fact that a significant number of car sharingcustomers are students or non-resident customers, therefore during that time frame thecurve points down. A peak is recorded right after summer holidays, stationary inNovember and again decreasing in December.
Driven Km
1.402 1.1611.527
2.688 2.4562.115
1.031
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
June July August September October November December
Months
km
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Average Driven Km
49,26
70,5
33,26
79,2389,6
53,92
37,45
0
20
40
60
80
100
June July August September October November December
Months
km/d
The curve follows here a similar tendency with slight differences between booked hoursand run Km this probably maybe a customer has booked the vehicle for a wide timeduration but might has been driving just for a few Km. The average of daily driven Km for the whole experimentation is equal to about 59 Km,this indicates that single trips taken do not exceed the Bologna local area, then shiftsmight mainly have been taken in the city.
Similarly the average time of use of the car sharing vehicles indicates that Smart cars havebeen used for a duration approximately of about 9 hours daily from June to December.
Average time of use
9,216,27
12,33 12,2910,45
6,425,24
0
2
4
68
10
12
14
June July August September October November December
Months
Hours/day
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TECHNICAL DATA
The table below sums up all technical defects and errors in use encountered duringpiloting.Many of these defects are ascribable to the system (Hardware, software defaults), othersbasically related to customers difficulties with managing with vehicleopening/starting/driving (Smart card use, on board computer, Smart cars automaticgear….). For further and additional data see enclosed Annex 2 & Annex 3 “Technicaldefects & Errors in use” from Del.3.1
Technical defects & errors in use Consequences� GSM blocked Unable to receive reservations
� Clock one hour in advance Wrong reservation
� Black key does not work Irrelevant for the service
� Vehicle could not be opened with the smartcard
Car could not be driven
� Access program blocked service blocked, unfit for use
� CUCM communication module blocked service blocked, unfit for use
� Reservation computer blocked service blocked, unfit for use
� Internet reservation system blocked service blocked, unfit for use
� Battery empty/no power Car could not be driven
� Vehicle tow-away Car could not be used
� Interventions for car cleaning Car unavailable
� Vehicle cleaning +tyres change Car unavailable
� Mirrors broken Car needed to be repaired
� Bodywork Car needed to be repaired
� Missed fuel cork/stopper Car needed to be repaired
� Car not parked at the proper location Car could not be found
� Mudguard painting Car maintenance activities, car useunavailable
� Painting fender & casket Car maintenance activities, car useunavailable
� Refuelling missed The following customer was damagedin terms of time waste
� Forgot to close the side passenger/driver The car could not be used
� Forgot to close the luggage van window The car could not be used
� Forgot to creep the smart card on thewindscreen
User lack of confidence with the service
� The user did not succeeded releasing thekey from the switchboard
Slowdown of car use
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Technical defects & errors in use : The numbers
Types of data Numbers Comments
Technical defects
- On board computer
6 The system has been re-set four times while for twice it wasnecessary to replace some of the equipment
See Annex “Technical defects ”(Del.3.1)
Technical defects
- COTABO operator desk(e.g. modem fault, softwareerrors)
31 In the CocoBook system, during reservations operations theoperator visualises, instead of a blue box, unusual interrogationmarks when the vehicle is booked
- the system displays windows in German language
See Annex “Technical defects ”(Del.3.1)
Technical defects
- Vehicle
- Vandalism
- Incidents
17
6
1
Vehicle breakdowns
Side mirror broken, spray on the vehicle, fuel tap stolen, flat tyre
Private incident
See Annex “Technical defects ”(Del.3.1)
Technical defects
- Internet fault
- - GSM-network fault3 See Annex “Technical defects ”(Del.3.1)
Technical defects 42 GSM faultsSee Annex “Invers usage data"(Del.3.1)
Errors in use
(e.g. users unable to openthe vehicle though regularlybooked
36 - E.g.: Customers are not able to start the vehicle as the Smartcar requires to position the gear at N position and press thebrake;
- Users are often unable to close the car with the smart card asthey forget to careful close doors or boot
See Annex “errors in use”(Del.3.1)
Accounting defaults 15% The billing software has a problem in elaborating invoices assometimes run Kms data are equal to sero, even though the userhas driven the car.
Furthermore, the system was set up with 15 minutes in advance toavoid bookings overlaps, by doing so the accounting system invoicealso the “safety time”
ATC realised quite soon about this problem and corrected theinvoices manually comparing data from logbooks records and theinformation provided by call centre operators. This way invoicessent to users have been all regular.
Obviously some of the defects & drawbacks recorded have caused a slowdown in certainactivities but have somehow helped in the appropriate solution finding.
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CarAtc: The Vehicle
Car Characteristics
Smart car - Eco-diesel Vehicle
- Total number of KM driven by all cars is 12.380(Average consumption of fuel per 100 KM (4 litreseach 100 Kms
- Exhaust emission standard:. EURO3
- Estimation CarAtc mainly used fora. innercity journeys: 96%,b. motorway: 1%,c. mix: city-motorway: 3%
- Registration of CarAtc service/ maintenance events:
CarAtc: The Users
Users Numbers CommentsQualified users*
(*Contract signers with bankauthorisation ”RID” to bill on theiraccount for CarAtc use)
97
Real users 58
Actual customers 50
58
65
80
88
96
27
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Mileage 12.380 Km 14.150 Km – INVERS data whichtakes into account of driven Kmsinternal staff tests.
Reservation hours 1906,5 1700 h – INVERS
Average of daily users 2,01 3 – INVERS
Average of daily bookedhours
9,11 9,6 – INVERS
Average of daily run kms 59,03 77 Km – INVERS
Total reservations 424 503 – INVERS
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ECONOMIC DATA
The table costs refers to a period of car sharing system operation running from beginning of June to the end of December 2001.Revenues derived from customers invoices only cover operational/management costs(fuel, car maintenance & cleanings) while all investments costs have been covered by ECfunds and through Sponsorship of Smart car dealer which have guaranteed vehicles beingat ATC disposal.
CAR SHARING PILOTCOSTS/REVENUES PERIOD FROM 1st JUNE TO 31st DECEMBER 2001
COSTS
1) Vehicles depreciation € 6.972,17
2) Booking and invoicing SW depreciation € 1.833,33
3) On board system depreciation € 1.012,50
4) Smart card € 550,00
5) Marketing campaign (portion) € 1.329,36
6) Personnel € 4.519,00
7) Parking places (signs) € 310,00
8) Car insurance € 5.828,73
9) Fuel costs € 480,00
10) Maintenance costs € 672,24
11) Vehicle cleaning costs € 182,83
€ 23.690,16
REVENUES
Invoices to users € 5.826,22
Sponsor for cars € 6.972,17
EU funds € 7.271,27
€ 20.069,66
REVENUES - COSTS -€ 3.620,50
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“TOSCA” survey
The document below represents the TOSCA first page of the Italian questionnaire. It hasbeen distributed among car sharing testers to inquire on their opinions and satisfactionconcerning the service from an organisational, technological & fare point of view. Thesurvey(Del.3.1), was also aimed at verifying on the users needs and requirements, in factthrough their characteristics, their trip habits, and their comments/suggestions ATC gainedsignificant information on how to improve, the service, on adjustments and changes tobring so to ensure a possible satisfactory and valuable car sharing system even in thefuture exploitation. The data collected are enclosed as Annex 5 in Del.3.1
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6 - TOSCA EVALUATION
The key role of TOSCA “Assessment and Evaluation” (WP4) was to determine in how farthe transfer of a car-sharing system was successful and to establish which were thebenefits for the car-sharing operator and users. The results from the evaluation processprovide important input for other car-sharing take-ups and transfer projects.
Rupprecht Consult was in charge of evaluation. A close co-operation with ATC andINVERS, who gathered the data required for evaluation (WP 3 ‘Operation andmeasurement of results’), was ensured.
Methodologically, TOSCA strictly followed the Six-Step-Approach for building evaluationinto an IST Project and built on the established practice of technology evaluation in pastProgrammes, especially TAP and ESPRIT.
The following two deliverables summarise the work carried out within this work packageand will be described in detail further on:
� Detailed Evaluation Plan (D4.1)� Assessment and Evaluation Report (D4.2)
OVERALL EVALUATION APPROACH
Extensive desk research on evaluation guidelines (ANIMATE, CONVERGE, and VATAM) hasbeen conducted, and project evaluation plans from previous European RTD Programmeshave been analysed, in order to draft a generic model for assessment tasks in TOSCA asinput for forming agreement concerning TOSCA evaluation.
Within the project, two work packages were in charge of evaluation, namely:
� WP4: ‘Assessment and evaluation of results’ of the TOSCA project
� WP3: ‘Operation and measurement of results’ of the Bologna pilot (see details in therespective chapter)
One of the major challenges was to reach compatibility of WP3 and WP4 (as well as theBremen and Bologna evaluations). This was ensured by an evaluation workshop carriedout by the members of Rupprecht Consult, ATC Bologna, the City of Bremen and Cambioon 5-6 March 2001 in Bremen. WP3 and WP4 activities were closely co-ordinated and theresponsibilities, a timetable and details of the Evaluation Plan agreed. The overallevaluation work was carried out in close co-operation with ATC and INVERS.
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Deliverable 4.1“Detailed Evaluation Plan”
The aim of the Detailed Evaluation Plan was to prepare the evaluation and assessment ofthe TOSCA project.
Based on a comprehensive introduction to the TOSCA project and the Bolognaimplementation framework, the Detailed Evaluation Plan includes the following elements:� Summary of the operational goals� Definition of the expected impacts and appraisal groups,� Definition of the evaluation methodologies, reference cases and success
criteria.
TOSCA Targets
Based on the TOSCA project objectives (see respective chapter), ATC Bologna aimed atimplementing a car-sharing pilot application with eight vehicles (plus one ATC-testvehicle), placed at four car-sharing locations in the city centre. To ensure a high quality ofcustomer services and environmental friendliness, the Bologna car-sharing schemetargeted to comply with the following emerging standards for car-sharing operations10:
� 24-hr service and accessibility, in order to offer a real alternative to private carownership.
� Fee structure based on mileage, in order not to give an incentive to drive more thannecessary (“pay as you drive” structure).
� Use of low emission vehicles (compliant with EURO III norm at least).
The implementation of the pilot car-sharing technology elements and the correspondingbusiness concept aimed to reach the targets defined below. These targets were projectedfor three years on the basis of the business plan estimates for the use of car-sharing inBologna.
Business targets* Sustainability targets*
� Achieve a number of 100 regular car-sharingcustomers.
� Achieve an operational efficiency above 25 %compared to a base case of non-IST-basedcar-sharing.
� Set up a car-sharing operation in Bolognawith at least 15 car-sharing vehicles, whichfully covers all operational costs within two anda half years.
� Reduce the number of kilometres driven bythe car-sharing customers by 160.000kilometres annually11.
� Increase the use of public transport means ofthe car-sharing customers by 25%.
� Reduce the total number of registeredvehicles in Bologna by 50 (gross reduction dueto car-sharing).
� Gain 500 m² of urban space12.
� Reduce the CO2 emission of the car-sharingcustomers by 32 tons annually13.
* Targets were projected for three years.
10 These standards have been defined by the German Independent Jury “Umweltzeichen” (Eco-Label) in May1999 as requirements for the labelling of car-sharing. 11 Starting year 2002 and based on the experiences of the City of Bremen, it was assumed that each car-sharing customer would reduce the number of kilometres driven by about 1.600 km per year. 12 Based on: 50 vehicles x 2m x 5m.13 Starting year 2002
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OPERATIONAL EVALUATION The core chapter of the Detailed Evaluation Plan covers the operational evaluation. TheWP3 and WP4 teams (Rupprecht Consult, ATC, INVERS), supported by Cambio and theCity of Bremen, spent a considerable amount of time to discuss, select, and define impactsand indicators as well as assessment methods and the evaluation tools.
Appraisal GroupsAll groups of people affected by the impacts of the car-sharing pilot application wereidentified. The following groups, called “appraisal groups”, were selected:
Appraisal Groups
Car-Sharing users � Users from the small business sector
� Students
� Residents
ATC Car-sharing provider and operator
Intermediate � Call centre (COTABO)
� INVERS (system provider and support)
Expected ImpactsA practical approach was chosen in identifying impacts that were expected to arisethrough TOSCA. An impact is understood as a parameter, directly measured or derivedfrom modelling, indicating the performance or impacts of an application.
The following TOSCA impacts were identified:
Impact 1: User friendly car-sharing system (user perspective)
Focus: Easy accessibility of car-sharing locations, vehicles availability, variety of vehicles, successfulbooking via internet or call centre, convenience and reliability of IT tools
Impact 2: Ease of operation (provider perspective)
Focus: Telephone and online accessibility, secure booking and paying method, accounting defaultsand automatic registration of use data
Impact 3: Economic viability of commercial car-sharing operation in Bologna
Focus: Financial income, actual use and future perspectives of car-sharing application
Impact 4: Contribution to sustainability
Focus: changes in mobility patterns, car ownership, urban quality, estimation of emissions changesand reduction of space required for parking
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Identified IndicatorsFor each of the four impacts, indicators were identified. An indicator is understood as aparameter, directly measured or derived from modelling, indicating the performance orimpacts of an application. The following table gives an overview over the selectedindicators.
Nr. Indicators
Impact 1: User friendly car-sharing system (user perspective)
1.1 Perceived customer satisfaction with car-sharing service in terms of:
� Geographical location of car-sharing pickup points
� Variety of vehicle types
1.2 Perceived customer satisfaction with booking in terms of:
� Vehicle availability
� Successful booking via call centre or successful online booking
1.3 Perceived customer satisfaction with IT tools in terms of:
� Convenience of use
� Reliability of smart card
Impact 2: Ease of operation (provider perspective)
2.1 Number of technical defects
2.2 Number of errors in use
2.3 Number of accounting defaults
Impact 3 ‘Economic viability of car-sharing in Bologna’
3.1 Number of users and use patterns
3.2 Income during the pilot application
3.3 Future interest of pilot customers in car-sharing service
Impact 4 ‘Contribution to sustainability’
4.1 Reduction of car use
4.2 Reduction of parking space
4.3 Reduction of CO2 emission
Each identified indicator was described in detail in an “indicator fact sheet”, summarisingthe relevance of this indicator, its key terms, the involved appraisal groups and themethods, reference case, operational issues and success criteria (please see D4.1, p. 29-45). Hereafter a brief overview over the indicators is given per impact.
Indicators of Impact 1 ‘User friendly car-sharing system’
To ensure a user-friendly car-sharing system, convenient use by the customers is vital forthe present and future operation of the car-sharing system (e.g. booking, IT tools, vehicleavailability, accessibility of car-sharing location).
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As customers satisfied with the car-sharing service are the basis for the system, it wasessential to analyse their wishes, requirements and perception of the service quality. Withthe evaluation of Impact 1 the car-sharing customers ‘got a voice’ and the chance toexpress their opinion on their experience during the car-sharing pilot application. Thisinformation was not only important for TOSCA project evaluation, but also for the futuredevelopment of Bologna car-sharing, as it provides the basis to decide whether servicesneed to be adapted in the future.For the evaluation of impact 1 the following indicators were used:
� Indicator 1.1: Perceived customer satisfaction with car-sharing service interms of geographical location of car-sharing pickup points and variety ofvehicle typesThis indicator aimed to measure customer satisfaction with the car-sharing service inBologna concerning locations and vehicles. The geographical location of car-sharing pick-up points has to meet the users’ needsand a diverse fleet is an important element of the car-sharing service. The fact thatSmarts were the only vehicles available during the pilot application made thisindicator indispensable to access pilot users satisfaction with just one type of vehicle.
� Indicator 1.2: Perceived customer satisfaction with booking service interms of vehicle availability and successful booking vial call centre orsuccessful online bookingBooking plays an important role, being the main interface between user and theservice operator. The users have the chance for direct contact. Since booking is thekey action for car-sharing use it should meet user needs very closely. Customer satisfaction with booking was measured by analysing customer satisfactionwith the call centre booking service, online booking and vehicle availability.
� Indicator 1.3: Perceived customer satisfaction with IT tools in terms ofconvenience of use and reliability of smart cardThe transfer of IT tools was an important goal of the TOSCA project. The aim of thisindicator was to analyse customer satisfaction with the reliability and convenience ofuse of the IT tools (smart card for booking, vehicle access, invoicing etc.).
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Indicators of Impact 2 ‘Ease of operation’TOSCA aimed to achieve a trouble-free IT-based car-sharing operation in Bologna. Thisimpact analysed the ease of operation from the point of view of the provider. Besides itwas supposed to establish whether Bologna was in line with other INVERS car-sharingimplementations. On the basis of INVERS’ experience, specified categories of problems were defined asbasis for the following indicators:
� Indicator 2.1: Number of technical defectsThe measurement of technical defects based on a list of ATC and INVERS registrationaimed to assess the ease of operation.
� Indicator 2.2: Number of errors in useBased on an INVERS’ registration/list of requests for support, this indicator aimed tomeasure the number of errors in use:� Caused by car-sharing operator or customers� Due to incorrect input or system-parameter-definition� Due to incorrect use of vehicle, onboard computer or self-service booking.
� Indicator 2.3: Number of accounting defaultsAs correct accounting is essential for a car-sharing service, this indicator aimed toassess the number of accounting defaults registered by the system.
Indicators of Impact 3 ‘Economic viability of car-sharing in Bologna’The car-sharing pilot application in Bologna was expected to establish the fundament foran economically viable commercial car-sharing operation in the future. As CarATC is a supplementary service to the ‘classic’ ATC public transport operation, awin-win situation for both services was expected. For this reason ‘economic viability’ wasexpressed in the TOSCA evaluation in terms of covering marginal operational costs14. The following indicators were used:
� Indicator 3.1: Number of users and use patternsThe indicator aimed to measure the actual use during the pilot application in terms of‘use of capacity’ of each car-sharing location and ‘use over time’.
� Indicator 3.2: Income during the pilot applicationWith this indicator the income attained during the car-sharing pilot application inBologna was supposed to be assessed.
� Indicator 3.3: Future interest of pilot customers in car-sharing serviceThe interest of pilot customers to use car-sharing services in the future (under whichconditions) was assessed as well as their willingness to recommend car-sharing to
14 In a later state, ‘economic viability’ should be understood ‘as the absence of outside funding, sufficientnumber of regular customers and vehicles to allow long-term operation of a commercial car-sharing service(under market conditions)’.
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others, thus generating basic information for the growth potential of Bologna car-sharing.
Indicators of Impact 4 ‘Contribution to sustainability’The TOSCA project was expected to contribute to sustainability by reducing car mileageand car use because of car-sharing. The following indicators were defined to evaluate thecontribution to sustainability:
� Indicator 4.1: Reduction of car use
Any change in car use stated by the car-sharing pilot users measuring both thepresent decision and future intention to reduce car use aimed to be documented withthis indicator.
� Indicator 4.2: Reduction of parking space
This indicator aimed to document the land estimated to be “freed” from parking usedue to car-sharing.
� Indicator 4.3: Reduction of CO2 emission
The changes due to the reduction of vehicle mileage and car ownership was to beestimated by this indicator.
Evaluation toolsConcerning the measurement of data it was important to achieve an efficient and co-ordinated approach. For this reason, the outlines of the operational evaluation tools weredesigned to facilitate co-ordinated data collection.The following categories of tools were developed jointly by WP4 and WP3:� Automatic Counts / Manual Registration (of e.g. errors in use, technical defects)� Survey (pilot user survey)� Collection of Factual Information (e.g. Bologna statistical data
Future Evaluation TasksAfter the systematic description of the indicators and the outline of the evaluation tools,the detailed evaluation plan concluded with an outlook on the evaluation tasks.
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Deliverable 4.2“Assessment & Evaluation Report ”
The “Assessment and Evaluation Report” evaluated whether the TOSCA project has beensuccessful in meeting its targeted objectives15.
The Assessment and Evaluation Report includes the following information:1. Introduction
to the TOSCA project and the Bologna car-sharing pilot operation2. Data Measurement and Analysis
highlighting the overall evaluation framework, data sources and CarATC use3. Detailed Evaluation Results
giving detailed information on the CarATC user profile and all indicators of the fourimpacts
4. Conclusions and Recommendationsfor future improvement of the Bologna car-sharing operation
The key information is summarised hereafter16.
DATA MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSISThe overall evaluation approach was followed as described at the beginning of theevaluation chapter. TOSCA assessment and evaluation was based on the Detailed Evaluation Plan (D4.1 seeprevious chapter), which defined four expected impacts:
Impact 1: User friendly car-sharing system (user perspective)
Impact 2: Ease of operation (provider perspective)
Impact 3: Economic viability of commercial car-sharing operation in Bologna
Impact 4: Contribution to sustainability
For each expected impact, clear assessment objectives and operational indicators wereidentified and consequently evaluated.
15 The Annual Project Review commented that the evaluation should not be limited to the estimation ofimpacts to the dimension of the actual pilot scheme, but extrapolate to different implementation scenariosand the follower cities. The TOSCA project had the ambition to do this, however due to the confidentiality ofreal commercial data extrapolation was extremely difficult and not feasible within the project lifetime. As aconsequence the TOSCA consortium proposed to include information on generic impacts of car-sharingbases on the experience of Bremen, Bologna, Dresden and Switzerland.Furthermore the APR commented that a revised version of the Detailed evaluation plan (D4.1) shouldinclude indicators that will be used in the survey for user acceptance (time for booking, transparency of usercharging) and cost of operation. As the evaluation was ongoing it was too late to change the DetailedEvaluation Plan, but substantial changes in the survey have been taken into account. The recommendedquestions concerning user acceptance were included in the TOSCA costumer survey.16 The text is based on the Assessment and Evaluation Report, D4.2.
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The assessment and evaluation was carried out by Rupprecht Consult - Forschung &Beratung GmbH. ATC Bologna S.p.a. was responsible for data measurement. ATC andINVERS provided the data required for evaluation (Deliverable 3.1) in close co-operationwith and very substantial support by Rupprecht Consult, responsible for the overallevaluation process.
Data sources The time period for system data analysis was six months from 1 July to 31 December2001 (referred to as ‘evaluation phase’ in the following text). The survey data covers theperiod from July to October 2001.The following data sources were used for the assessment and evaluation: � System Data
The automatically registered system data for the time period from 1 July to 31December 2001 was used for evaluation. This COCOS system data was provided byINVERS. A plausibility check was carried out. The ‘cleaned’ data includes 378 data entries (oforiginally 910), i.e. only "real users" are included in the evaluation of project results.
� Survey Data The survey data was gained through the TOSCA pilot user survey which was sent outby the beginning of December 200117. Data entry was closed by mid January 2002.73 filled in questionnaires were returned out of a total of 97 questionnaires that weresent out. This equals a return rate of 75%.
� Operational and Statistical Data Information regarding number of CarATC users, errors in usage, technical errors andstatistical background data was provided by ATC.
Reference CasesThe impacts of the pilot application had to be compared to existing data from othercontexts of car sharing implementation in order to compare the results of TOSCAapplication vis-a-vis other experiences. As the car-sharing system was transferred from Bremen it had been planned to use datafrom the Bremen car sharing operator Cambio for the reference case of the Bologna car-sharing pilot application. However, due to the sensitivity of commercial data Cambioeventually refused to deliver detailed reference case information. As far as possible thiswas compensated by car-sharing evaluation data especially from Dresden, but also fromSwitzerland and partly from the ZEUS project (in Bremen). In Evaluation a briefbackground of the reference cases is given.
17 Data measurement was held up by the fact that online booking - a key function of IT-based car-sharing -was not available before 15 October 2001. To include at least some experience of online booking in the dataanalysis, the TOSCA questionnaire was not sent out to the pilot users before the beginning of December.
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Overview CarATC useOf the originally 9 car-sharing vehicles only 8 were actually available for public use. Theanalysis is based on these 8 vehicles as used by “real” (i.e. non-ATC internal) users.The following table provides a general overview of use of CarATC during the evaluationphase of the project.
Overview car-sharing system data from 1 July – 31 December 2002
Source: INVERS
DETAILED EVALUATION RESULTSThe TOSCA project was carried out between 1 September 2000 and 28 February 2001.After 10 months of preparation, installation and testing, the Bologna car-sharing pilotapplication officially started on 18 June 2001. In December 2001 CarATC had 97 customers. Eight Smart cars were (and still are) locatedin four locations with 2 vehicles each for pilot application use. The ninth Smart was left atATC for staff use (car #1). The key outcomes of the detailed evaluation results are summarised hereafter.
CarATC User ProfileDuring the evaluation period from 1 July to 31 December 2001 the number of subscribedCarATC users grew continuously. In December 2001, car-sharing Bologna had 97subscribed users, however, not all customers used the service as only 57 actually made abooking during the whole pilot phase.
The core user group of CarATC is over represented by men between 24 and 35 years oldand with a comparatively high education. Many of this group live alone or in smallhouseholds and are full-time employees or self-employed.
Reservations - Trips Reser-vations Trips
Number of reservations/trips (time>0) 361 374Mean reservation/trip time 4:45 3:28Standard deviation of reservation/trip time 4:25 3:29Minimum reservation/trip time 1:00 0:01Maximum reservation/trip time 52:45 35:34Total reservation/trip time 1716:30 1302:2225% of bookings/trips were less than ... hours 2:30 1:4250% of bookings/trips were less than ... hours 3:15 2:4775% of bookings/trips were less than ... hours 5:15 3:59
Cars - BookingTotal number of cars 8Total number of bookings 378Mean number of bookings per car during pilot 47Car 5, car with maximum bookings 68Car 9, car with minimum bookings 11Cars - kmTotal driven km 10.511 kmMean driven km per car during pilot 30 kmCar 5, car with maximum mileage 2.327 kmCar 9, car with minimum mileage 270 km
Users - BookingsNumber of users (pilot) 57Mean frequency of bookings per user 6,6Minimum number of bookings 1Maximum number of bookings 40Total number of bookings 37825% of users booked ... times 150% of users booked ... times 375% of users booked ... times 8
Trips - km PilotNumber of trips (km>0) 346km mean per trip 30 kmkm median 22 kmkm stdv 33 kmkm minimum trip length 1 kmkm maximum trip length 346 kmTotal km 10.511 km25 % of trips were less than ... 11 km50 % of trips were less than ... 22 km75 % of trips were less than ... 39 km
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The main motivation of using CarATC are practical reasons indicated by people who areused to public transport. Just as in other car-sharing schemes, the Bologna experiencealso shows a general trend that an originally ecological motivation, which used to be thedriving force to set up car-sharing, is now less important than behind the convenience andcost aspect of the service today.
Car-sharing in Bologna has been used mainly for leisure activities as well as for shopping,thus for occasions when public transport is often not adequate or not practical. One infour respondents used car-sharing for work. This is a good complementary use, as thesetrips are mainly during the day, whereas the leisure trips usually take place after workinghours or on the weekend.
User friendlinessNearly 60% of the customers were very satisfied or satisfied with the key issues of car-sharing: booking (via call-centre), IT-tools for car-sharing use, and billing. The majority of the bookings met user’s wishes. If not, this was mostly due to having tochange to a different location. With two CarATC cars at each of the four locations duringthe pilot phase it was obvious that cars could not always be available at all locations at thetimes desired.Due to the fact that online booking was not available before 15 October 2001 and only 16online bookings were made in total, the amount of data was not sufficient to conduct anevaluation of this key IT-tool.
IT-tools Most of the users were satisfied or very satisfied with both IT-tools (smart card andonboard computer). The same applies for reliability of the smart card concerning access tothe car. Even though in total, only 16 bookings were made via Internet, 62 responsesreferred to reliability of the smart card concerning bookings. Half of those respondentsindicated to be satisfied or very satisfied. This indicates a high potential of trust in IT toolseven though many of the respondents lacked personal experience with using it.
CarATC useOctober 2001 was the month with the highest demand, August, the holiday month in Italy,yielded the lowest figures. There were fewer bookings on weekends, however, the time ofreservation was generally longer than during the week. On average, the reservation timeof a CarATC vehicle in Bologna was 1:09 hours per day. This clearly indicates that there isstill a high capacity of growth with the present car-sharing vehicles. Over the day, acertain usage pattern with peaks during rush hours could be observed.
Cost/RevenuesCarATC has not covered its costs during the pilot application phase. Only about 10% ofthe declared success criterion (income of about 50.000 € at the end of theexperimentation phase) was realised. The available financial data was insufficient for a detailed further analysis.
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Experience has shown that car-sharing can be cost covering providing that it starts with abig fleet, with different vehicle types and several locations. Since the pilot application inBologna started with few cars and locations the success criterion was obviously tooambitious.
New sustainable mobility pattern Already after 6 months of pilot application a changed transport behaviour can be noticedwhich favours “green” transport modes. Most of the respondents used buses as mainmeans of transport before joining CarATC. After having joined, the use of buses did notdecrease, but the use of other motorised modes did. For half of the respondents privatecars, motorcycles/mopeds and cars borrowed from family/friends were not any longerbetween the two most frequently chosen means of transport.As previous research has shown, car-sharing has the potential to replace private cars.Assuming that CarATC was the reason for selling or not buying a car, respectively, theevaluation findings imply that there was a potential reduction of 36 to 59 cars in Bologna.This suggests that each of the eight CarATC cars had a potential to replace 6-8 cars.However, due to the pilot character of the Bologna car-sharing application, an actualmeasurable reduction of cars could not be expected within the duration of the project.
Highly recommended mobility serviceFour in five CarATC users have recommended car-sharing to other persons or would do soin the future, mainly to friends and colleagues. This is an indicator for the overallsatisfaction with the service and forms a good basis for the future. As car-sharing is notyet very well known in Bologna, ’spreading the word’ by the pilot users is indeed veryimportant to stimulate the overall demand.
ProspectsThree out of four CarATC users would remain in the programme under the currentconditions, whereas four out of five users would either not agree to the new (higher)tariffs or are indecisive under the new conditions. Expectations of current customersmostly refer to low cost, diversified cost schemes, more locations and a greater variabilityin vehicles types.Potential new user groups are women, elderly people (55+) and families with children, aswell as students.
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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONSThe overall results of the evaluation reveal that the transfer of IT-based car-sharing fromBremen to the public transport operator ATC Bologna has been successful, even if real usewas comparatively low and the economic criteria were not met during the evaluationperiod. With the pilot application of the TOSCA project, CarATC has been established as anew mobility service in Bologna. Pilot customers were satisfied. Due to the Iniziativa Car-Sharing (ICS) the continuation of car-sharing in Bologna is almost guaranteed. As the overview in the following table documents, the majority of the success criteria hasbeen met. Yet, besides the assessment of the results obtained, the evaluation also allowsto derive recommendations for the future improvement of the car-sharing service inBologna as summarised below.
The Assessment and Evaluation Report gives detailed conclusions and recommendationsconcerning vehicle fleet and locations, customers, IT-tools, technical and usage problems,cost/revenues, benefits for public transport operator, sustainability, customers service,marketing and tariffs.
The key recommendations on the basis of these results are:� Establish a detailed business case� Solve remaining technical and accounting problems as soon as possible� Implement car-sharing strategy ‘start big, grow quick’ � Increase number of car-sharing vehicles � Make a wider variety of vehicles types available to users � Increase the number of locations � Adapt a diversified tariff structure � Create more synergy with public transport (e.g. ticketing)� Closely monitor actual car-sharing usage� Target marketing towards potential user groups
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Were the objectives met?Impact 1: User friendly car-sharing system Success criterion Criterion
achieved?
1.1 Perceived customer satisfaction with car-sharing service in terms of geographicallocation of car-sharing pickup points andvariety of vehicle types
Positive balance of “good” marks Yes
1.2 Perceived customer satisfaction withbooking in terms of vehicle availability and
Positive balance of “good” marks Yes
- Successful booking via call-centre Positive balance of “good” marks Yes
- Successful booking online booking Positive balance of “good” marks *
1.3 Perceived customer satisfaction with IT toolsin terms of convenience of use of smart cardand onboard computer and
Positive balance of “good” marks Yes
- Reliability of smart card for access tovehicle
Positive balance of “good” marks Yes
- Reliability of smart card for online booking Positive balance of “good” marks *
- Invoicing Positive balance of “good” marks Yes
Impact 2: Ease of operation Success criterion
2.1 Number of technical defects Overall, errors comparable to other IT-based car-sharing operations
No
2.2 Number of errors in use Overall, errors comparable to other IT-based car-sharing operations
Yes / No
2.3 Number of accounting defaults Overall, errors comparable to other IT-based car-sharing operations
Yes / No
Impact 3 ‘Economic viability of car-sharing’ Success criterion
3.1 Number of users and use patterns 100 regular car-sharing customers Yes / No
3.2 Income during the pilot application Income of about 100.000.000 Lira at the end ofthe pilot application.
No
3.3 Future interest of pilot customers in car-sharing service
Majority of pilot car-sharing customers indicatethat they will to use service in the future- under the current conditions- under the new conditions
Majority of pilot car-sharing customers is willing torecommend the service to others.
YesNo
Yes
Impact 4 ‘Contribution to sustainability’ Success criterion
4.1 Reduction of car use Expressed intention of 25% customers to give upa car or not to buy one due to car-sharing in thefuture under the premises that the service willcontinue.
No
4.2 Reduction of parking space 360 m2 surface of urban space freed from carparking use.
No
4.3 Reduction of CO2 emission Reduction up to 4 tons of CO2 (due to +/- 20.000Km saving, during pilot).
No
* No valid result, due to lack of data.
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7 - DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES
Introduction
Dissemination activities were designed to «help increase awareness amongst localtransport decision-makers and users in Europe on the benefits and potentials ofimplementing an integrated IT-based car sharing system» 18
While dissemination is an important aspect of any technology development and transferproject, it was particularly true in the case of TOSCA, as the project aimed to develop notonly a car sharing system in Bologna, but also a reference case at the European scale.Raising awareness on IT-based car sharing and presenting it as a credible alternativerequired addressing practical issues. Dissemination activities thus put the emphasis on theconcrete practice of IT-based car sharing - from the planner, the manager and the userpoint of view.Partners involved in dissemination activities include Polis (WP leader), Access, ATCBologna, city of Bremen, and Rupprecht Consult.Dissemination activities were planned and carried out as follows:
Initial objectives(i.e. planneddeliverables)
Actual results
Task 6.1.Car Sharing Workshops
3 workshops (Bremen,Prague, Bologna) – D.6.2
- Two-day training inBremen on 7-8 June2001
- Final Conference inBologna on 6February 2002
Task 6.2.Best practice case studyand guidelines
Report – D.6.3 - Take-up guidepublished in February2002
- Best practice casestudy
Task 6.3.Project web site &brochure
TOSCA web site – D.6.1 - Brochure published inMay 2001
- Public and internalproject web sites andCARATC web site(enabling on-linereservation) runningand regularly updated
This combination of activities enabled to reach a wide range of targets (decision-makers,technicians, potential users), locally in Bologna and Europe-wide, and contributed toestablish TOSCA as best practice reference for IT-based car sharing in Europe.
18 Source: Technical annex, p.5
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Task 6.1. Car sharing workshops
It was initially planned to organise 3 workshops but practical difficulties and thewithdrawal of the city of Prague led to the redefinition of the concept of those workshopsand it was decided to focus on 2 events with a specific purpose and a targeted audience.
The first event took place in Bremen on 7-8 June 2001 in the form of an intensivetechnical training, which addressed the question «How to start an innovative IT-based carsharing scheme?», with the aim to provide practical answers to concrete problems, and tosupport the follower cities and other interested parties in their car sharing activities.
Highlights included preparation of the business plan, marketing strategies, implementationand start up, work-flow management, integration with Public Transport and other mobilityservices, and of course IT applications.
The experience of Bremen, Bologna and the follower cities was of course used to identifybest practice regarding strategic, managerial and technical aspects. The technologyprovider INVERS presented IT applications for car sharing, and the operator StadtAutoBremen showed to what extent IT modifies the organisation of car sharing. The entirebooking process and the access to the vehicle were described and discussed in detail -including a site visit of a car sharing station equipped with an intelligent 'key manager'.
The access to cars using a smart-card and the functioning of the on-board computer werealso shown. The follower cities presented their current achievements and plans withrespect to car sharing. In addition, the regional PT operator of Munich showed the goodexperience gained there through co-operation between PT and car sharing. Besides,Cologne showed how the municipality used car sharing as an alternative to its ownmunicipal fleet. The seminar was concluded by a round table chaired by ATC.
Participant cities included Barcelona, Bologna, Bristol, Brussels, Bucharest, Gent, Lund,Stockholm and Strasbourg.
The final conference was organised in Bologna on 6 February 2002. The event was widelyannounced, including printed flyer and articles in European newspapers. The largeaudience - 100 delegates from 11 countries including southern Europe and CEE -confirmed the growing interest for IT-based car sharing as an integrated mobility concept.The conference not only provided the opportunity to learn "first hand" how CarATC wasimplemented in Bologna but also addressed the future prospects of car sharing inEuropean cities. Translations were provided from/to English and Italian. Participantsreceived a conference book including summaries of presentations. This book may bedownloaded from Polis web site and the project web site.
Mirco Armandi (ATC Bologna) summarised the main achievements of theproject in Bologna. A fleet of 9 car sharing vehicles at 3 locations has attracteda group of 100 users over the past 8 months. Operations have been supportedby an innovative system enabling electronic booking, management andaccounting activities. Users book a car at any time via the internet or by phone(thanks to a fruitful cooperation with the local taxi operator) and access thevehicle thanks to a contactless smart card. The fact that a significant amount of
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bookings have been made in the hour that preceded the use underlines theflexibility of the service. Nicola Nassisi (ATC Bologna) unveiled ambitious plansfor further development of the system in the next months, with 60 cars at 40locations. Presenting evaluation results, Siegfried Rupprecht (RupprechtConsult) shown that users were predominantly young people in full time or selfemployment - an important element in terms of business prospects but also anissue to keep in mind in terms of social inclusion. He also noted that 60% ofusers were satisfied or very satisfied with key features of the CarATC system,including booking, IT-tools and billing/cost transparency. The evaluationconfirmed figures from the car sharing experience in Bremen, presented byMichael Glots-Richter, showing that each car sharing vehicle has the potential toreplace from 5 to 8 privately owned vehicles. Another confirmation was theincrease in the frequentation of public transport by car sharing users.
Lasse Buschmann-Nielsen (European Commission) opened avenues for futuredevelopments when he emphasised the need to cater for individual particularpreferences for shared-use vehicles. Mohamed Mesghani (UITP) underlinedthat, given current mobility trends, public and private or individual transportshould no longer be seen a competitors but rather as partners. In his view, therole of Public transport in car sharing schemes would be to ensure theintegration of the mobility 'menu' and to help the customer find his way aroundin a stress free manner, but not necessarily to provide the service.
Car sharing is becoming an increasingly visible reality. Marco Mastrettadescribed how ICS-Initiativa Car Sharing provided assistance to Italian citiesinterested to invest in car sharing. Tosca follower cities shown that car sharinghas taken up Europe-wide. Manuel Villalante (TMB, Barcelona), Florin Dragomir(RATB, Bucharest), and Odile Costa and Jean-Baptiste Schmider (Auto'trement,Strasbourg) described their business plan and how they started implementingcar sharing locally.19
Task 6.2. Best practice case study and guidelines
It was initially planned to prepare a report featuring a detailed car sharing best practicestudy and guidelines on how to plan and adopt an IST-based car sharing system.Following the annual project review (October 2001), it was decided to split this deliverableand produce 2 documents: a Take-up guide for IT-based car sharing and a Best practicereport.
The take-up guide aims to provide practical information for starting an IT-based carsharing service. The first section describes the impact of car sharing on the environmentand mobility patterns. The integration of car sharing in urban policies and political successfactors are also documented. The second section shows how to plan and manage a carsharing scheme, including organisation, preparation, finance and marketing, based on theexamples of Bologna, Bremen and Strasbourg. The third part provides further informationon car sharing technologies, including smart cards, on-board computer, etc.
19 (Conference report)
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The take-up guide was published in February 2002 and distributed at the final conference.It is available on paper and will be available electronically on the project’s web site.
The best practice study is based on the results of the TOSCA pilot car sharing applicationin Bologna and other best practice examples presented at project workshops.Highlights of the document include background information and objectives of activity,implementation, conclusions and recommendations. The best practice study is to beincluded in the ELTIS database and published on the ELTIS web site as well as into theproject web site.
Task 6.3. Project web site and brochure
The public web site is the way par excellence to reach a very wide audience with up-to-date information. This web site, mostly in English, gives an overall view of the project.There is a good balance of general and technical information. It features all publicdeliverables - including data on users needs, and information about partners and followersinvolved in the project (companies profiles, persons CVs). Presentations made at thetraining in Bremen and the final conference are also in the process of being uploaded. Theweb site is a very good first step to learn about the project and to find out how to getfurther information.
There is also an internal web site restricted to the European Commission and consortiummembers. The site contains project deliverables and working papers, confidentialinformation etc. This is also in English.
Finally, there is the CARATC website to the attention of the users and prospective users inBologna. The web site is in Italian, and its design is very attractive. It givescomprehensive and detailed car sharing information and enable all customers enrolled tothe car sharing club to make their own reservations directly from the Internet.
A brochure on «Car sharing – intelligent mobility for European Cities» was published inMay 2001 at 2000 copies. The brochure is in English with summaries in Italian, French,Spanish and German (languages of the followers). The brochure was meant to be usefulfor the public, with basic definitions of car sharing and very clear descriptions of the way itworks in practice, together with information on the benefits of car sharing in financial andenvironmental terms.
This brochure was distributed at conferences and exhibitions and sent to Polis and Accesscity networks’ databases. The brochure is also available on the project web site.
Additional activities
In addition to planned events another car sharing related dissemination event took place during a workshop held on 16th & 19th May 2001 in France.The city of Strasbourg organised a political car sharing workshop following a practicaldemonstration of a Strasbourg and also a Bremen car sharing vehicle for the media. Themayor of Strasbourg, Mrs Keller, introduced the issue on the seminar in the StrasbourgCity Hall. The car sharing experiences of Paris, Bremen and Freiburg were presented anddiscussed along with the ambitious plans of Strasbourg.
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The following Saturday, there was a public presentation of Car-Sharing (with vehicles fromBremen and Strasbourg) in the central pedestrian area.
Internally to the project, all consortium members carried out a series of disseminationactivities which complemented the formal project deliverables:
- presentation of the project in a local fair in August 2001 including presentation of theadopted SMART vehicle (ATC);
- press campaign which led to the publication of several articles in Italian, transport andEuropean newspapers and magazines (ATC and Polis);
- article on TOSCA in Polis newsletter and final conference results on Polis web site;- article on TOSCA in Access as well as Eurocities newsletter;- promotion of the TOSCA workshop in the EPOMM (European Platform on mobility
Management) website (Access);- distribution of TOSCA brochures at different workshops and conferences throughout
Europe (Access and Polis);- advice to the European Parliament’s mobility cell, which considered implementing car
sharing for its staff (Polis)- Bologna Local press:
Il Resto del Carlino, Bologna, 19/06/01Il Domani, Bologna, 19/06/01
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European VoiceVolume 8 Number 217th January 2002
Car-sharing gets in gearTHE European Union is funding a pilot study into an innovative car-sharing scheme aimedat freeing-up gridlocked European streets. After the success of an earlier project in Bremen, Germany, 120 local residents haveregistered as users of a fleet of nine Smart Cars - paying 35 cents a kilometre and 1.29euro per hour for any journeys. Whenever they need a car they simply reserve one on the internet, pick it up and use acomputer smart card to gain entry. Later, the user returns the vehicle with a full tank of petrol - as if it were a traditional hirecar. But, unlike normal hire cars, these vehicles can be reserved for a trip lasting just a fewminutes - and the price is far lower. Bologna's transport operator ATC and partners such as Polis, a group of cities promotingbetter transport networks, won an EU grant of 3.76 million euro to show how smart ITsystems can be used to manage state-of-the-art car-sharing schemes. Polis director Isabelle Dussutour said each shared car could replace six to ten privatelyowned ones. She added that three other European cities - Barcelona, Strasbourg and Bucharest - arealready examining how to implement a similar service.
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8 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT
WP7 (Co-ordination) included activities for general project management. Project management consisted of the continuous co-ordination and monitoring of theproject progress along its life time. This activity started in September 2000 and officiallywas concluded on 28th February 2002 which marks up the actual contractual liaisons withthe Commission. In reality project co-ordinator activities have been carried out evenbeyond contract scheduled expiration date as the co-ordinator in charge of fulfillingreporting tasks which have not been guaranteed in due time.
The project co-ordinator (ATC-S.p.A.) was responsible of:� organising project management meetings,� ensuring a continuous project management in order to carry out all the contractual,
technical, administrative, and financial co-ordination tasks � defining common guidelines for evaluation, standards for dissemination and technical
transfer as well as developing common publications and events for all transportrelated take-up measures.
As far as the TOSCA project is concerned ATC, supported by a project management teamcomposed by the consortium members organised the following meetings:� Bologna, 11/09/2000-Kick off meeting,� Bremen, 5-6/03/2001-coordination meeting,� Bremen, 7-8/06/2001 - Project workshop/seminar,� Strasbourg, 30-31/07/2001-coordination meeting followers orientated,� Brussels, 18/10/2001-coordination meeting & preparation to 1st annual review
presentation,� Bologna, 6/02/2002-Project Final Conference.Within these team a technical committee, and an Evaluation & Dissemination group wereestablished.The management team is responsible of reviewing project deliverables & the co-ordinatorto authorise them.
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Deliverables
DeliverableNo
Deliverable title Lead participant Delivery Date
D1.1 Business and technicalimplementation plan
ATC December 2000
D2.1 TOSCA car sharing system INVERS June 2001
D3.1 Operation and resultmeasurement
ATC February 2002
D4.1 Detailed evaluation plan RC May2001
D4.2 Assessment and evaluation report RC February 2002
D5.1 3 Implementation and businessplans (FR, ES, CEEC)
ATC December 2001
D6.1 TOSCA web site POLIS January 2001
D6.2 2 Workshops POLIS June 2001-February 2002
D6.3 “Car sharing in practice: theTOSCA take-up guide”
RC February 2002
D6.3 “Best practice case study part” RC April 2002
D7.1 Project Presentation ATC February 2001
Quarterly ReportsQuarterly management reports were submitted to on a three monthly basis & listed themain achievements of the reporting period, problems encountered as well as plans forfuture activities.� Quarterly Report N°1-covering period 1/09/00-30/10/00� Quarterly Report N°3-covering period 1/03/01-31/05/01� Quarterly Report N°4-covering period 1/06/01-31/08/01� Quarterly Report N°5-covering period 1/09/01-30/10/01� Quarterly Report N°6-covering period 1/12/01-28/02/02
Periodic Reports & Cost statementsBoth the Periodic Report & the Cost statement N°1 were issued after a six month timeproject start and covers period from 1/09/00 to 28/02/01. The first document reports indetail technical project activities and resources involved to fulfil those, the second is thefinancial declaration of costs spent.Periodic Report & Cost Statement N°2 cover period from 1/03/01 to 28/02/02
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Problems encountered & solutions� Due to lack of political commitment the City of Prague withdrew from the project
before any performance within the project itself occurred.To guarantee the planned development of the project and according to the TechnicalAnnex three followers cities had to be selected. The third city to replace Prague had to bechosen within CEECs. As a result Bucharest, Strasbourg, Barcelona joined the consortiumand as already foreseen in their tasks, their participation within TOSCA basically consistedof three Business & Implementation Studies.
� Delay in collection and evaluation of operational data. This due to mainly internalorganisational problems that ATC had to face and to solve promptly to start thesystem running. A dedicated car sharing office, within the Road Parking BusinessUnit, was established, an agreement with the local taxi operator for service booking,& vehicles maintenance was organised looking at future, possible & successfulsynergies between public transport operators.
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9 - EXPLOTATION-OUTLOOK
Future Replication
The car-sharing pilot application in the city of Bologna can undoubtedly be considered asreally promising. Bologna car-sharing take-up can in fact represent a launching pad forreplication and further developments within other geographical and social contexts as well.From the point of view of ATC and with the perspective of a future replication of theservice - both in local and national contexts - ATC has learned the following lessons fromTOSCA and can be taken on board to gain future successful experiences.These issues should be considered carefully in order to avoid drawbacks:� Awareness RaisingConsidering the fact that car-sharing in Bologna, and in Southern and Eastern Europeancountries in general, is a quite unknown mode of mobility, it is necessary to createstronger awareness among citizens who should gain trust in car-sharing as acomplementary and innovative mobility solution. It is important to create a positiveawareness of the personal and public benefits derived from car-sharing use throughfocused sensitisation campaigns.� Information CampaignThe information campaign should, in fact, be more focused and broader at the same time.Looking back today, it does not seem favourable anymore to limit the marketing campaignto the ‘bus world’ only (e.g. leaflets, posters on busses and at stops). Of course, publictransport users need to be addressed since they are less focused on use of privatevehicles. In fact, the majority of users are already used to public transport means andthus are more likely to start using the new service. But also people who do not use publictransport services should be attracted to car-sharing. The more people are involved, thehigher there a possibility of success. A broader information campaign may attract morecustomers. It is important to create a higher ratio of the number of users to the number ofcars to increase the average use of the car-sharing vehicles.rienc1� Different Types of VehiclesAnother relevant aspect for the future development and success of the service is thepossibility to offer more diversity in vehicles types. According to the specific purposes,different vehicles may match these varying requirements.� Car-Sharing LocationsBologna has a mixed city centre, where also many residents live. Car-sharing parking lotsneed to be located not only in the city centre, which is certainly the most affected area asconcerns traffic and congestion, but also in the more peripheral housing and mixed areas.It is assumed that this would create a higher and more positive demand from thosecitizens who live in those areas. This way the demand might have more chances of beingexploited and easily satisfied� Raise Commitment by Requesting Admission FeeAllowing registration as pilot car-sharing user without any (annual or monthly) charges,does in the end not seem recommendable.It turned out that many CarATC users only registered because no admission fee wasrequired, not because they were really motivated and interested in using the service. Alow basic fee could sort out those people and cover the costs of regular informationservices etc. - without creating a threshold for becoming a client.
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In the next future (end June 2002), the city of Bologna as a member of ICS network(Iniziativa Car Sharing) will run car-sharing as a regular service.The number of parking lots for car-sharing will be increased from 4 to about 15 locationsand the vehicles will be about 30. Parking lots will be distributed not only in the city centreareas, but also in the periphery. This should allow a higher number of potential usersliving far from the centre to take advantage of the service in an easier and morecomfortable way. The need to catch a bus or any other means of transport to approachthe nearest car-sharing location will be therefore limited.Implementation will also deal with organising a service that can offer its customers a wideand diversified range of vehicle types that can then satisfy users’ daily needs andrequirements.It is planned to attract more than 500 car-sharing users within the next 18-24 months.Hopefully, more and more people will benefit from car-sharing in the future. Beside themobility and ecological benefits, each single user can profit from considerable economicbenefits: Buying and maintaining a vehicle is a risk, paying a fee for a car-sharing serviceonly when it is really needed, is a good deal instead, especially for short trips.The positive results of the TOSCA car-sharing transfer and experiences of the pilotapplication will be useful and certainly a reference point for the national car-sharingexperience. The Italian Ministry of the Environment has allocated for this purposes asubstantial amount of money to the implementation of car-sharing in other Italianscenarios. This co-funding and the ‘Iniziativa Car-Sharing’, ICS, is a promising opportunityto work on the future implementation of car-sharing services on a larger scale.Within the project the TOSCA ‘follower’ cities - Barcelona, Bucharest and Strasbourg -analysed the potential of a car-sharing and have all developed car-sharing ‘Technical andBusiness Implementation Plans’. All three cities have a high car-sharing market potentialand are strongly committed to bring forward the idea of car-sharing. Strasbourg hasalready started car-sharing, Bucharest is aiming to do so as well as Barcelona.
