Car-sharing has seen a huge increase in recent months, with the amount of carpooled kilometres having doubled in Belgium since last year. Road safety institute Vias has put the increase down to rising fuel prices.
On Thursday, Vias issued a report indicating that Belgian motorists drive an average of 33 kilometres per day, up from 29 million kilometres in 2021 but still short of pre-pandemic levels (41 kilometres in 2019).
Furthermore, they projected that from January to August 2022, an average of 300 million kilometres were travelled in Belgium per day. This is a 13% increase over the same period in 2021, however still 18% lower than the figures Vias had from 2019.
Carpooling's popularity
The report's most notable finding was the increased popularity of car-sharing, which now accounts for 11% of the 300 million kilometres cited above, up from 7% in the years preceding Covid-19.
Indeed, over 33 and a half million kilometres per day are travelled by car-sharing motorists, which is double the amount in the same period in 2021 and 40% higher than in 2019.
Vias attributes this to two factors: an increase in fuel prices as a result of the Ukraine war, as well as the fact that carpooling has become simpler to organise.
This is due to more parking places being installed for car-sharing as well as the introduction of online platforms such as Cambio, DriveNow, Ubeeqo, Zen car and Zipcar.
