The idea is not new at all; it was born in 1948 in Switzerland, where it is still most widespread. In France, it was first implemented eight years ago. However, it did not gain widespread popularity. But now, apparently, it has become pressing.
In Strasbourg, where the association 'Autremans' appeared in 1999, when 15 friends pooled their money and bought three used cars, there are now about a dozen cooperative parking lots. There, a cooperative member with an electronic chip card can get 'his' car at any time. In Paris, where the company 'Caisse Commune' handles this, there are about two dozen such storage and distribution points, and new ones are created as soon as forty subscribers gather in a city district.
'Autremans' guarantees its members the ability to get a small passenger car at any time of day. A monthly subscription costs €10, to which are added €1.40 per hour of driving and 19 cents per kilometer driven. In city mode, this works out cheaper than a taxi or traditional car rental. Moreover, one does not have to experience the stress of finding parking. The association has its own parking lots, and they are becoming increasingly numerous.
According to the director of 'Caisse Commune', Loic Mignot, this system can reduce the fleet of passenger cars in the city by 15 times due to their more complete utilization. Subscribers typically use the car occasionally, for trips to areas inconvenient for public transport, to visit friends in the suburbs, or to go shopping at a hypermarket. They walk or take public transport to work. However, shared use is only beneficial in a large city because the parking lots must be close to each other. Then there is a greater chance that the desired car will be nearby at the right time.
'It never happens that everyone needs a car at the same time,' states Loic. 'Some need it during the day, others in the evening, and still others only on weekends. The computer easily sorts out the usage schedules.' One just has to return the car to the parking lot clean and with a full tank.
As Novye Izvestia notes, other forms of shared passenger transport are spreading in France and Belgium, helping to reduce the number of cars on the roads. Neighbors who go to work at the same time or take their children to school at the same hour cooperate and take turns driving their cars out of the garage. And at roadside parking lots before entering a large city, specially designated spots have appeared where fellow travelers gather to continue their journey in one car, leaving the others until evening. Sometimes this is even necessary. For example, when the Paris weather service sounds the alarm about critical air pollution, gendarmes do not allow cars into the city that do not have at least one passenger.