Statement: What I always wanted to tell the world about collaborative mobility.
The internet is providing more and more access to collaborative travel. There is so much more potential there, it just needs to be activated. We should take this opportunity and make a change!
Dream scenario: How I hope the world of travel looks in 2060.
My TOP-moment: In my eyes the biggest success in the history of collaborative mobility.
It’s surely the moment when the “haves“ turn into “sharers“? Collaborative travel can only exist when people are willing to share what they own.
My personal mobility behaviour: How I move privately.
I sold my car six years ago. Since then, I have been using my bicycle more often as well as public transport, car share services as well as BlaBlaCar. This means I can now travel more healthily, flexibly, ecologically and quite often, faster! What I most appreciate is that I no longer have to waste time looking for a parking place, I’m caught up in traffic jams less often and I never have to take the car to the garage.
Personal experiences with collaborative mobility: An incident which stayed in my mind.
A memorable experience using collaborative travel was my realisation of all of the benefits of ride sharing after a 3 hour ride with BlaBlaCar. For the journey, we were four very different people all together in the same car. We talked non-stop and shared our life stories. The conversation kept on going because we realised we shared so many things in common. This is when I realised that sharing a ride was about much more than just saving you money, it enables social interactions between people who would never normally have met in everyday life. It also democratises mobility, because it makes more or less passive users of transportation into actors of a new, cost-efficient transport network.
The incident that sparked my interest in shared mobility solutions:
I discovered the idea of ridesharing while studying in Germany. I grew up in Italy, where ridesharing was totally unknown at the time, and so I decided to set up a ridesharing website in Italy.
Ready for action: If I could, I would next…
Minds only change slowly. Together with my colleagues I work every day on accelerating the awareness for collaborative mobility – but it would be great if it could go even faster!
DATABOX:
Name: Bremer
Firstname: Olivier
Function: Country Manager Germany and Italy
Company: BlaBlaCar / Comuto SA
Founded in the year: 2006
Head Office in: Paris
Number of Collaborators: 100
The Business Idea in summary:
BlaBlaCar is the largest rideshare community operating in Europe, with more than five million members. BlaBlaCar connects drivers with empty seats to passengers travelling the same way so they can share the cost of the journey. BlaBlaCar places a strong emphasis on trust, where users all have profiles that include profile pictures, ratings and levels of in car chattiness (bla = I don’t talk much, blabla = I talk quite a bit depending on my mood, blablabla = I talk all the time). BlaBlaCar is active in ten countries and already more than three billion kilometres have been shared.
Website: