Car sharing (Switzerland)

Carsharing is a system of car rental where people hire cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. They appeal to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle and who do not want the financial disadvantages of owning a car. Organizations which rent the cars may be commercial businesses or democratically-controlled companies or cooperatives. They work in partnership with local authorities, communities, and supplement existing public transport infrastructure such as rail and are considered an important part of a sustainable transport mix by reducing emissions and easing congestion. Car sharing and car clubs have been a popular choice for motorists in Central Europe since the late 1990s. Today there are more than one thousand cities in the world where people carshare.

The Swiss carsharing scheme ‘Mobility’ was founded in Zurich in 1987, and now has over 2,200 vehicles at 1,100 stations throughout Switzerland. The most important growth area is Business CarSharing, which has increased by 25%. More than 2,100 Swiss companies use 9,020 Mobility cards for organising corporate mobility. Students and employees of the Swiss Federal Technical University in Zurich, and the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, are able to use their personal employee or student ID cards to hire vehicles. The Mobility Cooperative used the international guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for the first time in 2008 when preparing its annual reports, focusing on innovation, as well as ecological and social sustainability.