A city-level analysis of B2C carsharing in Europe Master’s thesis Jan Lodewijk Blomme Master’s program: Innovation Sciences Student number: 3642658 Email:
[email protected] Telephone: +316 4419 6103 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Koen Frenken Second reader: Dr. Wouter Boon Date: May 13, 2016 A city-level analysis of B2C carsharing in Europe – Master’s thesis J. L. Blomme Summary Business to consumer (B2C) carsharing is a phenomenon that started in Europe in the 1940s but has gained in popularity quickly since the 1990s. This development is a welcome addition to the means that can be supported by local governments in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and curb congestion in cities. Cities have however experienced differences in the extent to which carsharing has been adopted in their area. This research uncovers several important city features that explain this differential adoption of carsharing in a city. This study uses the multi-level perspective (MLP) to distinguish between the contemporary car regime and the carsharing niche. Several indicators are identified that theoretically would weaken the regime and/or strengthen the niche in a city. These indicators are therefore expected to have a noticeable effect on the amount of shared B2C vehicles in cities, as the local car regime would be weaker. The research develops a unique database by collecting the amount of shared B2C cars online through carsharing operator (CSO) websites. Independent variables are in turn collected through various sources both on- and offline, including national statistics databases and Eurostat. Results are initially analyzed through bivariate correlations.