Circular Economy in Mobility: Sharing and Rural Areas

The transport sector accounts for roughly a quarter of all greenhouse emissions. While significant improvements have been reached in improving energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of vehicles and technologies, the challenges for reaching national and international objectives are great. The transport system as a whole is facing significant changes driven by trends such as servitization, increasing intelligence and automation in vehicles as well as infrastructure, and systems that communicate and integrate well with one another. Circular economy is a concept addressing the efficient use of resources at all stages of the lifecycle of a product. In the transport sector technological advancements in vehicles, efficiency improving design choices and low-emission energy choices are leading the way but to complement these, digital services also play a role. New types of digital services and business models are being introduced at a rapid rate. While introducing new opportunities for addressing mobility needs, they lead to new expectations and have their own requirements regarding the need for and availability of resources. This paper investigates the challenges and opportunities related to shared mobility services in the context of rural areas. When it comes to transportation and areas with sparse population and long distances, the sharing solutions showing the highest potential are (1) on-demand transport services, (2) shared taxis, (3) combined transport services for statutory social services, and (4) shared cars.