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Car sharing in Cyprus - Create and advertise an app for sustainable mobility

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Help Cyprus find its direction while bringing your ideas to life!
dariuskanter dariuskanter       No comments    Created Date: 26/04/2020

Proposal code: Pusula / Ππούσουλας-2020-04-113

Heavily reliant on cars as a means of transport, Cyprus would be ideal for environmentally friendly car sharing. We need a popular app: Drivers their enter their route plans, passengers find a ride!

Cyprus is leading among the number of cars per thousand inhabitants. We all know, it sucks, it's difficult to live without a car. This is a serious disadvantage the island has, and it's not only a big problem for students and poor people but also makes Cyprus less attractive for individual tourists. Car density is increasingly becoming a problem for the environment and for air quality. But above all, is a huge waste of resources: most cars have no passenger other than the driver; at best you see two people in the cars passing by.

Unfortunately, it is unrealistic that we will ever have a reliable and frequent public transport system in Cyprus. Given the low number of the population, we won't be able to afford a bus system (let alone a train system) that can satisfy the mobility needs of the inhabitants. Also, for political reasons there will unfortunately never be public transport across the green line.

Hitchhiking still works in Cyprus, especially in rural areas. However, because of the lack of pre-planning, undirected traffic within cities and increased (rational and irrational) savety concerns, it is evident that unfortunately, only for a small minority of people hitchhiking is a practical mobility solution. What we need is a sharing solution that could also be tainted as "organised hitchhiking"

We are convinced that a car sharing solution, if properly implemented and advertised could nake a real difference in transport needs of the population. It DOES work in other countries why not in Cyprus?

Also, it's a genuinly bicommunal undertaking, a true "PanCyprian" project; car sharing and naturally also works for rides across the green line.

There are some existing examples and projects that we could build on

- dotdotcar. Started by a student in North Cyprus, the project has unfortunately been abandoned due to the lack of resources. The user interface looks really great and basic functions do work; it could be a start point for a new application

- in other countries, there are commercial companies, most  imporantly blablacar in France, Germany and many other countries (The company is not interested to enter the market in Cyprus, and also it's policies and restrictions are questionable at least)

Actions that are needed

- Development of a car sharing application; both an app for mobile phones and browser version.

- Campaign make sure that Cypriots and tourists, both drivers and passengers, make use of the car sharing opportunities.

- We need pick up spots at the major highways; At all streets where currently speeds are too high and there is no space to safely pick up people. There could also be a zone at the airport for picking up passengers

- Possibly we also need the legal measures to underpin the use of car sharing. For examle the at the highway/road main into (South-)Nikosia, a fast lane could be reserved for cars with more than one passenger.