Spaniards's new mobility

Monday, 12 november 2018 | Redacción CEU

Over recent decades, the automotive industry has changed so much that it is surprising to look back. Not only are factories and production processes different, but also car mechanisms, the systems that guarantee their safety, the vehicle marketing, the way of advertising them and their accident rate. The behavior behind the wheel is no longer the same. Using a map to find the best route is a resource of the past. Alcohol is not conceived as a harmless travel companion. Drivers rely on synergy with technology, there are even some who are already prepared for cars driving themselves. All these changes, as expected, are not innocuous and are giving rise to a different driver mentality, and also a new concept of mobility.

The Spanish Public Survey Center of Mobility (Centro de Demoscopia de Movilidad) is composed of PONS Seguridad Vial (advisory,) Autofácil (magazine), WiBle (car sharing service), Moovit (public transport app) and AutoScout24 (online platform of advertisements). This body has recently published the Sixth Study on New Mobility in Spain. Its analysis indicates that owning a car is no longer a priority issue for many drivers. In fact, 46% of respondents would be willing to sell their current car in case their personal and professional mobility needs were guaranteed. Spaniards would not replace their car with a traditional option of public transport, but with carsharing services. This is the favorite alternative when it comes to choosing a formula which is different from the one they normally use. At least, that is what 30% of the people who participated in this study answered, a figure 22% higher than those that chose buses.

Why buy a car if you can share it?

Of course, private vehicles are still the main means of transportation for Spaniards. Specifically, 56% of respondents use them to go to work or to their study center. They are followed by buses and subways (33%), going on foot (21%) and carsharing (17%). The vast majority of participants, 80.45% of them, own a vehicle or drive one that belongs to a member of their family. However, the second property model is shared vehicles (cars, bicycles, motorcycles, etc.). These data are even more striking if we take into account that in last year's report, only 1.07% of interviewees used this alternative on a regular basis.

86% of respondents of this study have ever heard of carsharing (services which are offered by companies such as Car2Go, Emov, Zity, WiBle, etc.), although only 34% of them are users of this type of services. For sure, the accelerated increase of the interest in this new means of transport is surprising. 49% of users say they have begun to use this method for the last two years, 34% of them for only a year , and only 16% have been doing so for five or more years.

Drivers increasingly rely on new mobility alternatives. According to the study MobilityIsDigital which was conducted by the High Institute for the Internet Development (Instituto Superior para el Desarrollo de Internet) and published in May, 35% of citizens in Madrid and Barcelona use digital urban mobility services. This analysis also shows the greater use of bicycles as a means of transport, the good valuation of public transport and the unstoppable rise of the bet on the companies that offer ridesharing services. The study also shows a deeper attachement to cars among people from Madrid in comparison with people from Barcelona. This trend is also perceived in the analysis of autonomies which was carried out by the Spanish Public Survey Center of Mobility.