City of Nürnberg follows Bremen’s Example – mobil.punkte to Reduce Parking Pressure in City

City of Nürnberg follows Bremen’s Example – mobil.punkte to Reduce Parking Pressure in City

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The Bremen “mobil.punkte” are writing history once again. In 2003, Bremen was the first city in Europe to dedicate public street space for the purpose of car-sharing stations – the so-called “mobil.punkte” - and has received much recognition for it. Several cities have followed Bremen’s example and the latest is the German city of Nürnberg.

Driven by the policy foundation of Bremen’s Car-Sharing Action Plan, the City of Bremen seeks to provide a supportive framework for the continuous expansion the network of car-sharing in the city. The goal is and has been to provide attractive and practical alternatives to individual car-ownership for the city’s residents and subsequently reduce the number of privately owned cars in the city – which consume a considerable amount of space and resources. Annual research shows that every car-sharing vehicle in Bremen replaces between 10 and 15 privately owned cars (Source: Move About User Survey 2016 and cambio User Survey 2015, respectively). This means that the over 80 car-sharing stations in Bremen – 24 of which are “mobil.punkte” on public street space – and over 12.000 car-sharing users have already removed over 4.000 privately owned cars from the streets of Bremen!

Now the City of Nürnberg also hopes to follow this example and in the style of Bremen too! On October 5, 2016, Nürnberg inaugurated its first “mobil.punkt”, the first of eight with a total of 50 car-sharing vehicles to be opened in the coming months. The Nürnberg “mobil.punkte” follow the Bremen strategy and design as well as the same name brand. In return for the user rights to the “mobil.punkt” brand name, the city of Nürnberg is required to apply the same user criteria to the selection of a car-sharing provider as are applied in Bremen:

  • The car-sharing provider must meet the criteria of the German Environmental Standard for Car-Sharing (“Blauer Engel für Carsharing, RAL 100)
  • The car-sharing provider must provide proof on an annual basis that each vehicle helps remove privately owned cars from the street via a customer survey (at a ratio of at least 1:6)
  • Mobil.punkt opening in Nürnberg - Michael Glotz-Richter from the City of Bremen (right) presents Udo-Poster to City of Nürnberg's Ulrich Daniel

    Mobil.punkt opening in Nürnberg – Michael Glotz-Richter from the City of Bremen (right) presents Udo-Poster to City of Nürnberg’s Ulrich Daniel

    While a purpose of the SHARE-North project is a change of knowledge on a transnational level, it is always satisfying when ideas can also be transferred on a national level as well. “It is nice to see how a good idea can be reproduced elsewhere. Many German cities have already oriented themselves on Bremen and integrated car-sharing into their transport strategies. After eleven years of political discussions, the Federal Ministry for Transportation has drafted a Car-Sharing Law, which, however, still requires some improvement based on practical experiences”, stated Bremen’s Senator for the Environment, Construction and Transportation, Dr. Joachim Lohse. The practical experience that Bremen has gained through the implementation of its car-sharing strategy, exchanges with other German cities like Nürnberg and the lessons learned from the SHARE-North partners and other European cooperations will provide a valuable foundation to the negotiations on the Federal Car-Sharing Law in the months to come.

    17 Oct 2016