[sustran] Re: Is carsharing irrelevant for the Global South?

[Zvi Leve]

I agree that 'taxis' and other 'professional' driver fleets are already
filling this roll to some extent, and this certainly could be developed
further to make such systems more efficient.

Another point which has not been mentioned (yet) is that car-sharing
presumes that people actually know how to drive a car (or a motorcycle, or
whatever vehicle it is that is being shared)! People surrounded by cars and
car-culture tend to assume that everyone knows how to drive, but this is not
necessarily the case. Learning to drive requires a significant investment of
time and resources in and of itself. Once the effort to learn how to drive
has been undertaken, one can assume that the person who has made such an
effort will have a strong incentive to make the additional investment to
acquire their own vehicle.

Which begs the question, is teaching people how to drive a good investment
of limited resources?

Interesting discussion....

Cheers,

Zvi

On 24 March 2010 10:55, Roger Gorham <roger.gorham at gmail.com> wrote:

> Eric,
>
> OK, I'll bite.  I think that the question really depends on what you mean
> by
> car-"sharing" and what prevailing wage rates are (which itself ultimately
> depends on whether you are talking about middle, low, or very-low income
> countries).
>
> If by car-sharing you mean having relatively hassle-free access to
> automobility without the need to own and maintain a car by people with
> means
> to otherwise do so, then most cities in the global "south" already have
> car-sharing.  They are called taxis.  The main function of car-sharing is
> to
> variabilize a formerly fixed or sunk cost.  In many low- and very
> low-income
> countries with very low wage rates, it is hard to envision a circumstance
> in
> which the variabilized costs of access to a fleet of self-drive vehicles
> could be made to be lower than the already-variabilized costs of access to
> taxis.
>
> Perhaps there would be certain niche markets in which some wealthier middle
> and upper-middle class people in low-income countries might prefer to take
> a
> well-maintained self-drive fleet vehicle than use a (often poorly
> maintained) taxi, but this niche would barely make a dent on overall urban
> mobility, and even there, I cannot envision a circumstance where you could
> convince these people in large numbers to choose car-sharing over owning
> their own vehicle.
>
> Car-sharing becomes more viable the higher your average wage rates, so I
> think your suggestion for transportation planners and policy makers to
> follow development elsewhere would only make sense (perhaps) for middle
> income countries.
>
> Roger Gorham
>
>
>