EFFECTIVENESS OF CAR-POOLING

Michael Meschik, Oliver Roider, Gerd Sammer

Institute for Transport Studies,
University fuer Boderdcultur, Vienna

1 I N T R O D U C T I O N AND OBJECTIVES

As the level of motorisation is increasing steadily, most city centres and their
surroundings suffer from severe congestion. Authorities cannot cope with this
onslaught of motorised vehicles solely by new infrastructure. Even if space and funds
are available, environmental restrictions often prevent new road construction. This
situation will become more critical in the future.

Nevertheless, plenty o f space can be offered to people on the move. - The space inside
the cars. In commuter traffic in an average peak period ten cars are used to transport
12 persons. Therefore transport policy ought to promote car-pooling to make the
unused space inside the cars available to commuters and thus providing benefits to
both individuals and the public. Car-pooling is not very popular in Europe, where
public transport is easily available. Little is known about people's attitudes towards
car-pooling. Most schemes to promote it have therefore proven ineffective.

This paper is concerned with an European research project on car-pooling called

ICARO. As the project is currently in the evaluation stage, further information will be
given at the European Transport Conference.

2 ICARO - T H E E U R O P E A N P R O J E C T

ICARO is the acronym of_Increase o f CAR Occupancy Through Innovative Measures

and Technical Instruments. It is a project within the EU Fourth Framework
Programme for transport research. The project is split into two main areas covering
research and practical demonstrations. The research evaluates existing measures of
increasing ear occupancy and considers the different institutional and cultural
frameworks of several European countries. The demonstration element of the work
includes on-site demonstrations as well as computer simulations of additional
measures aimed at increasing car occupancy.

The ICARO consortium consists o f 13 partners from nine European countries.

The objectives o f lCARO are:

• To identify the best practices concerning technical instruments and organisational

measures to increase ear occupancy.
• To identify and understand the institutional and cultural framework cormeeted with
the increase of car occupancy.
• To carry out a number of real life demonstrations using these techniques and
measures.
• To investigate any shifts in mobility behaviour that might occur as an undesired

175
 side-effect of schemes for increasing the car occupancy.
• To set up a methodology for selecting the suitable measures and instruments.
• To disseminate the results to all interested parties. This will be done via a
handbook and brochures, video, homepage, international seminars and a CD-ROM.

National car-pool policies

European countries have different levels o f involvement in those car-pooling schemes

which aim at an increase of car occupancy rates. Generally speaking there are four
levels:

level 1: car-pooling is almost unknown. No experiments have been carried out.

level 2: starting to consider car-pool. Car-pool is considered as a possible solution for
traffic problems. Some small-scale experiments have been carried out.
level 3: starting with car-pooling policies. Car-pool policies are being implemented
on various levels, but there is no overall car-pool policy.
level 4: An integrated car-pool policy. Car-pooling is taken into consideration in all
policy fields.

In Europe only the Netherlands have reached the highest level.

3 THE ICARO REAL LIFE DEMONSTRATION IN SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

A car-pooling real life demonstration as part of the ICARO research project was
running from October 1, 1997 to April 30, 1998 in the region of Salzburg in Austria.

3.1 Background End topographical information

Most people know the city of Salzburg because of its famous music festivals and visit
it for its beautiful otd city centre where Mozart was born. For the ICARO project,
however, the road traffic situation is also of major interest. The demonstration area is
the central region of Salzburg, because of its prosperity and future prospective. The
region offers a wide range of opportunities for trade and industry as well as cultural
and recreational highlights. Thus the prognosis (Sammer, R6schel et. al. 1995)
forecasts quite an extraordinary growth in the coming years. This will result in an
increase in population and housing in the area surrounding the city of Salzburg, as
well as in an increase in ear traffic of up to 60% from 1994 to 2010. A major part of
this traffic will be commuter traffic to and from the city of Salzburg. This will cause
enormous problems for irmer-city traffic as new roads cannot be built.

One main objective of the Salzburg City Council is therefore to operate the existing
road network in the most efficient way. Despite inner city traffic congestion, car
occupancy in the region of Salzburg is low. Particularly in rush hours one car is
occupied by 1.21 commuters on average. It is therefore important to increase car
occupancy and to investigate how this can be achieved most effectively. In addition to
the real life demonstration, modelling scenarios will investigate future developments
and possibilities.

The route to central Salzburg from the south is clearly defined and consists of one
major arterial - the motorway A10 (Tauemautobalm). The situation in the north and

176
 east is more difficult to assess. We assume that long-distance traffic apparently arrives
mainly on the motorway A1 (Westautobalm) and most short-distance commuters use a
number of radial roads (see Fig. I).

The following part o f this paper will concentrate on the Salzburg project.

3.2 Objectives and approach

Commuters to the city o f Salzburg should be encouraged to leave their cars at home or
at special car-pooling car parks and use only one car (i.e. "car-pooling car") to
continue their journey. As an incentive certain benefits are available for car-poolers.
Participants in this car-pooling scheme form car-pools consisting o f at least two
persons (2+) and register at the matching centre. Then they receive a membership card
which enables them to claim all these benefits (see Fig. 2).

3.3 Measures

The main goal o f the real life demonstration was to set incentive measures to win
potential car-poolers. No additional restrictive measures were implemented.

The following measures were realised to promote the scheme:

• Matching and information centre

From October 1, 1997 a matching and information centre was opened which can be
called at local rates 24 hours a day. Some 400 people contacted the matching centre
seeking information, about 150 requested a matching list. The total number o f
participants is now above 130, 69% o f whom are long-standing car-poolers.

• Carparksforcar-poolers
Car parks were adapted or newly built at 13 locations 10 to 60 km outside the city
o f Salzburg near major conjunctions, where commuters can meet and park their
cars. Each ear park was equipped with direction signs and traffic signs for parking
displaying the logo of the car-pooling project.

• PreferentialparMngatpublicgarages
Four public garages in the city of Salzburg offered reduced fees for car-poolers.
The reduction was about 20% offthe normal tariffs.

• Preferential on-streetparlang in the city centre o f Salzburg

Most of the parking areas in the city o f Salzburg are marked as short-time parking
zones. Long-distance commuters can get parking permits for the whole day. For the
duration of the ICARO project similar eonditions also applied to car-poolers.

• Preferential carparking at the workplace

Two preferential ear parking spaces were implemented on a trial basis at the private
car park of the Provincial Government Office of the Province of Salzburg.

• Additionalpassenger insuranceforparticipants
An additional passenger insurance for 200 car-poolers was offered in co-operation

177
 with an insurance company.

• Half-price ride home onpublic transport

Car-poolers could claim a half-price ride home on public transport after 2.p.m.

An additional strategy was to encourage car-pooling in several organisations in the

city of Salzburg, but the response rate was not very high. Some organisations were
even reluctant to join and support the scheme.

3.4 Pubfieity and Marketing

Car-pooling has little public tradition in Austria. Therefore the public awareness
campaign comprised a number of activities. The aim was to direct the information at

• the public in general,

• different organisations, opinion leaders,
• commuters, the main target group

As traffic problems are not very severe and car-pooling has not become a very
important issue in the Salzburg region yet, the demonstration was organised with
particular emphasis on the information of the public. For example, the 13 car parks for
car-poolers were evenly distributed all around the city of Salzburg and were meant to
have an important role in the information of the public as well.

The information campaign included."

• press conferences and regular information for the mass-media

• information passed on by the mass-media (local newspapers, local radio and TV)
• information material (folders and postcards) posted to 22000 commuters,
distributed in front of shopping centres and handed out to drivers during rush hours
• telephone hotline at local rates
• information boards (2.40 x 1.60 metres) on all major roads leading to the city (see
Fig. 3) especially in congested areas
• additional information (newsletters, etc.) in companies
• interviews of the staff rtmuing the matching centre broadcast bY local radio stati°ns
• film clip of the commuting trip of one car-pool on local TV
• detailed information brochures and posters

3.5 Modelling and future measures

The real life demonstration site in Salzburg will also be compared to other modelling
sites such as Leeds, Madrid and Thessaloniki. Modelling scenarios for the present and
for 2011 will evaluate the different measures mentioned above and additional
measures like HOV-lanes. It is intended to calculate the benefits for the individual
car-pooler regarding time and money and for the environment at present and in the
future. Restrictive measures could not be introduced in Salzburg. However, these will
be considered in the scenarios for 2010, when the increase in traffic will lead to severe
congestion on many major routes.

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4 ANALYSIS OF THE SALZBURG PROJECT

The surveys which are currently running and the evaluation process are dedicated to
the task o f assessing the public opinion on car-pooling and the needs of participants
respectively. Information on car-pooling (why people participate in car-pools and why
others refuse to do so) should be passed on to decision makers. The findings o f this
project will result in guidelines for politicians encouraging them to promote car-
pooling effectively.

The project includes thefollowing surveys on Mobility:

• analysis of mobility data in the region of Salzburg

• telephone survey concerning attitudes towards HOVs; information status of the
public concerning car-pooling in general and the Salzburg project specifically
• experiences and problems of participants in car-pools
• persons contacting the matching centre
• experiences and problems of car parks users
• in-depth household surveys on traffic behaviour including reasons for/against car-
pooling

The measures and the information campaign attracted considerable attention. Their
impact on different groups of people surveyed, however, varies greatly (see Fig. 4).

4.1 Mobility data of the region of Salzburg

The analysis of mobility data from the Salzburg region showed 10% car passengers in
the modal split (Fig. 5). Among these 48% are family members, 47% are not, 5%
could not be assigned (Fig. 6). The modal split o f commuters' trips unveils a
significantly higher proportion of ear trips but only 7% passengers (Fig. 7). Here these
passengers are mainly not members o f the drivers' families (60%, see Fig. 8).

4.2 Attitudes towards car-pooling and the Salzburg project

In December 1997 a telephone survey was carded out to gather information about
people's awareness o f the car-pooling project and to collect opinions towards car-
pooling in general. 220 people were selected at random in the Province of Salzburg
and 50 in the city of Salzburg.

Some results concerning the car-pooling project:

* The project is well known, the information campaign has reached its goal. 72% of
all inhabitants questioned know the project called ,,Salzburg testet
Fahrgemeinschaflen", if you ask commuters who go by car to the city of Salzburg,
the percentage is 11% higher.
• 46% o f all interviewees read about the project in a newspaper, 30% received their
information from TV and 27% from the radio, which shows that mass media
campaigns are extremely important for introducing new measures.
• It is remarkable that 48% of the commuters by car saw the information boards
which were set up on major roads, at major jtmctions and at the 13 ear parks
• Many o f the people questioned could mention some of the measures realised. In

179
 particular, commuters by car knew the parking spaces for car-poolers. The
matching centre is a totally new institution and therefore almost ignored. More
advertisement and information is needed to make it better known.
• Many of the interviewees know the meaning of car-pooling, because in German the
term ,,Fahrgemeinschaft" is well chosen. 87% think ear-pooling a good idea.
• However, only 22% believe in the success of ear-pooling (Fig. 9). This group is
11% larger among people who have experiences with car-pooling (Fig. 10).

4.3 Experiences of car-pool participants

One unit of measurement for the effectiveness of the Salzburg project was the number
of car-poolers that could be identified. As mentioned above, more than 130 car-
poolers are registered. Of the participants in the car-pooling project 23% are female,
77% are male. The age groups are evenly represented: 36% up to 30 years of age, 34%
between 31 to 40 years, 26% between 41 to 50 years and 4% over 51 years of age.
69% of the participants have established their car-pool before the project started
(Oct. 97), so two thirds of the enlisted participants were long term car-poolers whose
experiences are of a great value.

90% o f the active car-poolers had positive experiences, there were no negative
experiences with car-pooling. The following results are also noticeable:

• Most car-poolers met their partners at their place of work (Fig. 11). Car-pool
support at the working place is therefore very effective and should be emphasised.
• Car-pools consist of 2 (42%), 3 (36%) and 4 persons (17%). There is also one pool
with 5 and one with 6 persons (Fig. 12).
• For 75% of the car-poolers the most important reason for car-pooling is saving
money. Other reasons can be seen in Fig. 13.
• Positive effects of car-pooling are saving money and time (40%, 18%) but also
"communication" (34%) (Fig. 14).
• Negative experiences are "inflexibility" (20%), waiting (13%) and others (Fig. 15)
• The interviewees had different suggestions for the promotion of ear-pooling
(preferential parking and pricing, use of bus-lanes, special car parks, etc.) (Fig. 16).
• Registered car-pool members have made nse of the following privileges: half-price
ride home on public transport (40%), long term parking allowance in the city centre
(7%). 54% did trot claim any privileges,
• Active participants practice ear-pooling as drivers (11%), passengers (18%) or
alternately as drivers or passengers (71%). 25% give/receive financial
compensation for the trips, 75% gifts, invitations, other things or do not
compensate the expenses.
• On average car-pools are active 5 days a week (64%). 10% of the participants take
part 3 days, another 10% 4 days, 4% two days a week and another 10% irregularly.
The ear-pool trip is organlsed by phone (31%), by meeting personally (47%) or
starts regularly at a fixed time (58%).

4.4 Effectiveness of the matching centre

In the period from October 97 to March 98, 426 people contacted the matching centre.
49% used the telephone, 48% a postcard, the rest other means. The people who

180
contacted the matching centre usually commute with motorised vehicles (60% are
drivers, 4% passengers and 15% are drivers and passengers alternately). About 17%
use public transport, 6% use a bicycle or walk.

The main reasons f o r the contact were:

• information needed 42%,
• matching offer wanted 58%,
• registration of an existing car-pool 16%,
• other reasons 2%

27% of the contacts were by participants of a car-pool. From those persons that were
interested in a ear-pooling partner, 47% got a matching list. Only 38% of those
contacted the recommended partners. The other 62% said that the trip route (86%)
and/or the time (64%) or something else (4%) was too different. These differences
were also the reasons why only a handful of matehings could be made. We attribute
this to the small sample of potential car-poolers stored in the data base of the
matching centre which did not allow many convenient matching proposals.

4.5 Effectiveness of the car-pool car parks

The parked cars on the 13 car parks were spot-checked once before and two times
during the project. As a consequence o f the measures the number of cars parked there
increased by about 50. So far 90 car owners have been interviewed about their reasons
for using the parking space. The car parks are used for park&pool (36%), park&ride
(35%), as a final destination to park the car (22%) and for other reasons (7%)
(Fig. 17). More than 60% of these persons (mostly commuters) said that their
destination was the city o f Salzburg, the others continued their journeys to 10 different
munieipaiities. The main trip purpose (79%) was work, followed by education, leisure
and other purposes.

80% of the persons that parked their ears at one of these car parks knew about the car-
pooling project. For their sources of information see Fig. 4.

5 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

5.1 Obstacles

There were some obstacles to car-pooling:

• Flexibleworldnghoursmakeco-ordinationofcar-poolsdifficultorimpossible.
• Organlsations which are close to central public transport stations are more likely to
have a large proportion of public transport users and very few car-poolers.
• Availability of company cars to employees also for private use prevents car-
pooling.
• Single car use gives independence, car-pools are said to be inflexible in unexpected
situations (picking up of children or partners, etc.).
• Employees representatives argued that the ICARO project would favour car-
poolers and discriminate all others, that is why they often refused to support the
scheme.
• Many companies preferred not to implement benefits (reserved parking spacesl

18'1
 privileges for car-poolers etc.) and/or restrictions for a special group of employees.

5.2 Results

Taking into account that car-pooling is not welt known in Austria the demonstration
has proven successful, as more than 130 persons have now registered officially as car-
poolers. Some 400 have contacted the matching centre and 50% of these wanted a
matching proposal. As a result of this positive response, all measures have been
prolonged until the end of 1998. There are good chances that these benefits will be
granted to car-poolers permanently. This does not concern the ICARO-project, as the
originally planned demonstration period has already ended, but it can be seen as a
success o f the project and a further step towards sustainable mobility and car-pooling
in particular. Positive effects of the demonstration are the growing interest in this
mobility project in the adjoining province of Upper Austria and the similar projects
that have been launched by the Austrian Automobile and Touring Club in Lower
Austria and Vienna.

5.3 Final statements

The evaluation of the surveys proved that the mass media campaign played an
important role in the information process. However, new and innovative features such
as the matching centre and certain benefits for the car-poolers mostly went
unrecognised by the public and would need additional campaigning.

It is of the greatest importance that participating organisations realise the benefits of

this kind o f mobility management. When they in turn support their employees
actively, the number of car-poolers can increase significantly. The small number of
matchings accomplished by the matching centre is due to initial problems and can rise
significantly when more persons' data are available in the data base.

Good contacts to local governmental organisations and politicians are important too.
Official support is invaluable for overcoming difficulties in the initial phase. Car-
pooling should be implemented and promoted in the context of mobility management
by an organisation that has sufficient resources and power to cope with individual and
general problems as well.

At present time car-pooling has no fwm foothold under the given transport framework
even when the (financial) benefits for participants are considerable. Future increase in
traffic volumes will justify severe restrictive measures in the private transport system
and promote car-pooling effectively. This project provides the information which
measures are acceptable and will have the best effect.

Definitions

car-pooling .... Car-pooling is the term for two or more people riding in a car usually
belonging to one of the occupants, no matter whether the driver is
always the same person or the car-poolers alternate driving.
HOV .............. high occupancy vehicle: a vehicle on the road carrying two or more
people; sometimes an HOV-lane is reserved for these HOVs.

182
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183
 /

i'Y,'

Fig. 1: Federal Province of Salzburg

Fahrgemeinschaftsausweis
Salzburg.
Name:

Wohnsltzadros~: • ,' •

giiltig.bis 12/98
6eb.: 19 laut auf der RECkSeiM
~rte. eedlaguagea

Fig. 2: Membership Card

Fig. 3: Information Board

mGENERAL P U B L I C (n " 201)

R P E O P L E I N T E R E S T E D IN T H E C A R - P O O L I N G P R O J E C T
(n = 172)
r~USERS OF CAR*POOLING C A R P A R K S (n - 58)
mPARTICIPANTS (n ffi II0)

morn t ~ one R w w ~ p ~ b l c

Fig. 4: Sources of information about the car-pooling project

184
 IO0
n p t ~ e a.an,,~ t
-~ 80 [] not assigned
--ID
2q B ear-driva" ~ 60 i n o farrdly members
"$
n~erde •~ 4o [] family members
O
~ 20

n = 6723 n=T]O

Fig. 5: Modal Split - Salzburg Region Fig. 6: Car passengers (not) related to driver

lo0- - 100

Upub~eO"anspm
'~ 80
~q f~ m not as~gned

mcm....ckiv~ [] no family members

I
[] bic3~le 4o
f.)
[] family members
u ~
0
t,..*

n = 1850 . n * 131

Fig. 7: Modal split of commuter trips Fig. 8: Commuter trips of car-passengers

(not) related to driver

niTg6 .%~V'o i1m73

Fig. 9: Prospects of car-pooling success Fig. 10: Prospects of car-pooling success

(persons inexperienced with car- (persons experienced with car-
pooling) pooling)

185
 ~t
¢:>

C~

21

mt
8 2 3 4 5 6
mt S
4 4
PERSONS PER CAR-POOL
n=46

Fig. 12: Car-pool sizes

n = 120
m o r e than one answer possibl,

Fig. 11: Ways of meeting car-pooling partners

80 75

70

60

50

40

30
24
18

i
16
10 10
I0 ~ 7
3 3 3 2

0 "4-

m ~

~or~ thnu c=c ~ " possible

8
Fig. 13: Reasons for participation in the car-pooling project

186
 50 "

,o
34

30

23

20 -4- ~ ~ ~ 18

10

4 3 2

O ~
z

m o r e t h a n o n e a n s w e r possible n = 118

Fig. 14: Positive experiences with car-pooling

30' "

20
20' -

13

10'
5
4
3 2 2 3

b~

o
¢)a,

m o t e t h a n o n e a n s w e r possible n=l18

Fig. 15: Negative experiences with car-pooling

187
 ~N.A.
INO
EYES

p m s ~ ar~Wel~ n m 118

Fig. 16: Measures favoured by car-poolers

r~

n=58

Fig. 17: Reasons for using the car-park

188