Italy boosts car-sharing

The Italian Ministry of the Environment launched in April a national plan of promotion of car-sharing, that will receive € 9.5m of governmental grants devote to help fund local car-sharing initiatives operated by local transport authorities.

Ministry officials estimate that 100,000 motorists could take part in the new schemes by 2005, reducing CO2 emissions by 20,000 tonnes and the number of cars on Italy’s roads by 50-100,000 vehicles over the period 2002-2005.

It is estimated that participants in the programme could spare about € 1,500 a year on the basis of a yearly distance of 7,000km. Car-sharing participants will also enjoy some advantages such as free parking in some city centres.

The plan is being progressively introduced in 2002 in the cities of Turin, Bologne, Modena, Genova, Rimini and Venice. It will be extended to 10 further cities in 2003, including Rome, Milan and Florence.

In Turin, for example, the "City Club Carsharing" is jointly owned by ATM, Turin public transport company (51%), a Fiat-owned company (33%) and a cooperative (16%).

It will have a fleet of 60 vehicles and 16 parking stations for its first year, which will grow to 200 vehicles and 40 parking stations in the future. 1,000 customers are expected for the first year.