Skip to main content

Zipcar founder: ‘Car-dominant city has reached its zenith’

Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase has called on urban authorities to embrace multimodal transport in a bid to improve mobility.“The value of a car-dominant city has reached its zenith,” she says in an interview with ITS International. “The city regulatory and physical infrastructure has been built on a personal car-dominant infrastructure. We have spent the last 100 years making car travel in cities the most convenient and cheapest way to the exclusion of everything else.” That creates problems, she
May 23, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

3874 Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase has called on urban authorities to embrace multimodal transport in a bid to improve mobility.

“The value of a car-dominant city has reached its zenith,” she says in an interview with ITS International. “The city regulatory and physical infrastructure has been built on a personal car-dominant infrastructure. We have spent the last 100 years making car travel in cities the most convenient and cheapest way to the exclusion of everything else.”

That creates problems, she continues. “Today, mayors and cities are signalling by price that they are indifferent as to whether you take your zero emissions and small footprint bike or a 25 year-old car that pollutes heavily or indeed a shared taxi or public transit. Currently the city is signalling that ‘all those things are the same to us’.”

Chase, who also spoke at ITS International’s 8545 MaaS Market Atlanta conference, is keen to avoid demonising the car as a travel mode - but is not convinced that developments such as automated vehicles will ease congestion.

She is one of the influencers behind the recently-published %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external Shared Mobility Principles Shared Mobility Principles website link false https://www.sharedmobilityprinciples.org/ false false%> developed by a group of NGOs and adopted by a range of public bodies and mobility players.

The principles call for fair pricing of different mobility options. “The point of doing road congestion pricing and kerb access pricing is so we can start getting at fair user fees across all modes,” she insists. “Personal cars are not paying a fair share and because of that we have been responding to the wrong price signals which is why we don't have enough walking, biking or shared transport modes.”

  • For full interview and MaaS Market Atlanta report, see ITS International May/June issue, out soon

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • BYD delivers electric buses in Nepal
    October 26, 2018
    BYD has delivered five electric C6 buses to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation in Kathmandu to help improve air quality in Nepal. The buses will operate in Lumbini, a Buddhist pilgrimage and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) world heritage site. This deployment is part of a wider initiative from the Nepalese government to replace 1,000 taxis in Kathmandu Valley, as well as school buses, with electric vehicles. Last month, BYD also delivered 12
  • Zero-emission transport at centre of Democrat ‘Green New Deal’
    February 13, 2019
    Clean and affordable transportation and zero-emission vehicle infrastructure are at the heart of the US Democrats’ ‘Green New Deal’ package. The proposals seek to move the US away from fossil fuels and other sources of emissions that cause global warming within the next decade. The package says these goals can be reached by reached by a ten-year “national mobilisation” which include an overhaul in transportation systems to eliminate pollution and greenhouse as much as technologically feasible, repai
  • InDriver’s ride-hailing app allows NYC users to negotiate fares
    December 12, 2018
    InDriver has launched its ride-hailing app in New York City (NYC) which allows the driver and passenger to negotiate lower fares. The app allows users to set a fare for a selected route. Nearby drivers receive the destination and fare and can either accept or bargain for more money. The passenger receives multiple offers from drivers, allowing them to make a choice based on fare amount, driver ratings, estimated time of arrival and vehicle make/model. The service is available to communities in Brooklyn,
  • TfL describes reports of closer ties with Uber as ‘nonsense’
    December 14, 2018
    Transport for London (TfL) has described claims that it is deepening its relationship with Uber as ‘nonsense’. Media reports suggested that London’s transit authority might be going to offer customers access to public transport services via the ride-hailing firm's app. The Financial Times reported that Uber is attempting to add TfL's data about tube and bus timetables into the app. But a spokesperson from TfL told ITS International that the only thing it is putting out is open data – and does no