Seven Answers From: Olivier Bremer

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.

• Integrated, resource efficient and sustainable – owning your own vehicle for your personal travel needs is definitely over by then! 
  
• Transfers between different transport methods happen smoothly, without delays and seat capacities are efficiently adapted to demand.
  
• Last but not least: Speed is not everything! By 2060, you’ll be able to use your time when travelling to do many other things because of technology. So it won’t be lost time!
  

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!