Zurich offers more sharing vehicles per person than Berlin, London or Vienna

Zurich does not have to hide in the sharing vehicle market. With 6.6 sharing vehicles per 1000 inhabitants, Zurich leaves major cities such as Berlin (5), London (2.1) and Vienna (0.9) well behind. With e-scooters, Zurich is also home to a new sharing service. For the fourth year in a row, ZHAW students from the Transportation Systems program have investigated existing sharing concepts in the field of mobility in seven European cities. The study "Shared Mobility" shows that sharing offers are continuously growing in Zurich, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris and Vienna. Overall, Paris has the largest sharing offer with almost 13 sharing vehicles per 1000 inhabitants, eight of which are bicycles and e-bikes.

Zurich at the forefront of car and e-scooter sharing

Cars, bicycles, scooters and now also e-scooters: While a total of 31,533 sharing vehicles are available in Paris, Zurich has a total of 2,821 cars, bicycles, scooters and e-scooters. According to Jonathan Suter, project manager of the study, however, the absolute figures are deceptive: "With the fleet figures, Zurich is sometimes far behind at the end of the comparison. However, if the figures are put in relation to the inhabitants, the opposite is the case." Zurich has the most of the new e-scooters available per capita. With 1.1 e-trottinetts per 1000 inhabitants, the cities of Vienna (0.39) and Paris (0.36) are relegated to second and third place. In the already established car sharing market, Zurich ranks second behind Copenhagen (1.8) with 1.2 cars per 1000 inhabitants. If all available sharing vehicles (car, P2P car, scooter, bike and e-scooter sharing) are added together, one is available to every 152 inhabitants.

American birds and limes in Zurich
In the course of the past year, new e-scooters were offered in three of the cities surveyed. With 460 new e-scooters, Zurich can count itself among the European pioneers. The e-scooters serve as a simple and trendy alternative for covering shorter distances. They are not yet cheap: after the activation fee of CHF/EUR 1, they cost CHF 0.30 or EUR 0.15 per minute. However, this is expected to change with a broader volume of traffic. The American providers Bird and Lime are present in all three cities. In Paris and Vienna, one and two other providers are active, respectively. Since last year, scooter sharing has also been available to Zurich residents for the first time, with 200 vehicles from Mobility.

Public transport and sharing - a potential dream team
It is true that the sharing market continues to grow, new providers are getting involved and fleets are being enlarged. But only bikesharing is currently experiencing noticeable growth. "Bikesharing companies are seizing the moment and offering bikes at low prices that can be picked up and dropped off almost anywhere," explains Thomas Sauter-Servaes, head of the Transportation Systems program. "That's because - unlike car sharing - the vehicles are cheaper to buy, take up less space and can be used without a driver's license."

However, Jonathan Suter also notes a shortcoming in the growth of sharing: "There is no linked system. Each sharing offer is currently still managed via its own app." Links between public transport subscriptions and sharing offers are practically non-existent. Yet scooter, bike and e-scooter sharing would provide a solution to the problem of the last mile, as Suter explains: "If you could also simply rent sharing vehicles that are available at the hubs or stops with the app or subscription card of a public transport company, such offers would certainly be used more."

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