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One Mobility car replaces 23 privately owned cars Basel leads the way

28.02.2025

1:23_Basel_Hochstrasse_mit_ohne_Mobility Carsharing_beschriftet

A new report shows the impact of Mobility in reducing traffic congestion in Swiss cities. Nowhere is the effect as great as in the city of Basel.

1:18 throughout Switzerland, 1:23 in Basel

Without Mobility car sharing, an additional 2’800 cars would be on the road in the city of Basel. This is shown by a new report that investigates the impact of car sharing on traffic. In cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences OST, the consultancy firm BSS Volkswirtschaftliche Beratung surveyed thousands of Mobility users. The result is impressive – on average, each Mobility car replaces 18 private cars.

Study co-author Fabiana Kappeler says: “The results show that, according to their own assessment, the respondents would own significantly more cars without Mobility. Mobility’s car sharing offer means that parking space can be saved on a massive scale – space that is then available for other uses.”

You can find the summary of the study here.

The individual pictures are shown here.

Park your jogging machine five times

In some of the largest Swiss cities, the avoidance rate is even higher than 18. But nowhere is the effect as great as in Basel: Here, each Mobility car replaces 23 private cars. Taking all the Cooperative’s shared cars in the city together, around 2,800 cars are not required. In terms of parking spaces, this corresponds to an area of 35,075 square metres – or five times the size of the football pitch at St.Jakob-Park. In other words, the city of Basel seems to be the perfect place for car sharing. Thanks to good local amenities and an ideal complement by a dense public transport network.

“1:18 – or how Mobility takes the pressure off Swiss roads”

STUDY DETAILS
Mobility has had the impact of its own car sharing scheme in Switzerland quantified. The scientifically supported study was carried out by the Basel-based consulting firm BSS Volkswirtschaftliche Beratung in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland. The evaluation standard of the German Car Sharing Association (bcs) served as the basis. In September 2024, around 5,700 Mobility members were asked about their vehicle ownership and mobility behaviour.
You can find the summary of the study here
The individual pictures are shown here.
Key findings of the study:
1 Mobility car replaced in Switzerland on average 18 private cars.
The effect differs locally. While it is even higher in cities (up to 23 in Basel), the effect is still at 9 9.
73% of respondents life in a household without a car.
The degree of motorisation in households with a Mobility subscription is 2 to 3 times smaller in the cities surveyed than in average households.
The Mobility offer plays an important role in the decision to to get rid of your own car (over 50% say “fairly large” to “very large”)
Conclusion: Thanks to Mobility, around 40,000 fewer cars are on the road in Switzerland.

Traffic-calmed roads

How can this effect be illustrated? Using photos. To this end, roads were photographed in Switzerland’s largest cities. On these streets, so many cars that were lost in the city in question thanks to Mobility customers were then removed and e.g. replaced by green spaces.

Such as Hochstrasse in Basel. Original picture on the left, with integrated use of Mobility on the right. Assuming that one Mobility car makes 23 privately owned cars superfluous, you have more space for life.

Decide for yourself which street you prefer to live in:

1:23_Basel_Hochstrasse_mit_und_ohne_Mobility Carsharing_1200_800

Car sharing reduces private motorised transport

The report also looked at the level of motorisation of households: In the cities studied, the number of cars per 1,000 people in average households is on average at least twice as high as in households with a Mobility subscription. Fabiana Kappeler says: “Thanks to the car sharing scheme, many Mobility customers do without a private car entirely. This has a direct impact on mobility behaviour: People who do not own a car are more likely to travel by public transport, bicycle or on foot. This also means a reduction in individual motorised transport.”

Strong argument for more shared mobility

“For me, the results of the study are a huge incentive for further expanding our offer,” says Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher. “If we want to overcome the mobility challenges in Switzerland, we need a significantly higher proportion of car sharing in the mobility mix.” To achieve this, Mobility intends to work even more closely with cities, cantons, companies and upper-level apartments in future. “Together, we want to make sustainable mobility as easy as possible.”

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More about Mobility

Mobility is the car sharing market leader in Switzerland. The Cooperative offers its 277’000 customers more than 3’000 vehicles for every situation at 1’600 stations. Thanks to digital technology and a state-of-the-art app, using our cars is easy, inexpensive and, above all, sustainable. A Mobility car replaces an average of 18 privately owned cars, thus creating space, reducing traffic and protecting the environment.