A study of feasibility and potential benefits of organised car sharing in Ireland

• Car sharing would provide significant CO2 savings at all levels in Ireland.
• Car sharing would provide significant cost savings for low usage car owners.
• Benefits of car sharing have been calculated at both individual and aggregate levels.
• Car sharing would promote cycling, walking and public transport use indirectly.

In this study, the market potential of car sharing has been evaluated using multiple alternative scenarios which examine the geographic, financial and environmental factors influencing car sharing adoption. The scenarios are applied to the available and collected travel information of the Irish population to estimate the potential impact of introducing car sharing in Ireland. The analysis identified that car owners who travel predominantly on alternative modes, could make significant cost and CO2 savings through car sharing. A reduction of yearly CO2 emissions of 86 kt is readily achievable through car sharing, with reductions up to 895 kt possible with appropriate policy and financial support. These figures are comparable to other measures proposed under the Irish National Climate Change Strategy.