Midway seminar: Changes towards sustainable mobility: Experiences from car sharing in urban areas

Elisabeth M. C. Svennevik

Photo: UiO

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Elisabeth M. C. Svennevik is a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK). This seminar marks her midway evaluation.

 

Project description

There has been prevailing attention towards technological substitutions to solve environmental problems of transportation, such as electrical vehicles.  This is in particular the case in Norway. However, transition to sustainable mobility includes a socio-technical change, meaning a change in the use and users, as well as in technology. This research focuses on the role of car sharing in changes in urban mobility for environmental sustainability. Car use and private car ownership dominated the mobility scene for decades. Alternatives to car ownership, such as car sharing, have recently started to get increased attention. Assessing this, my PhD project explores the transition towards sustainable mobility by presenting empirical analysis of the use of car sharing in the urban area of Oslo.  

The main objective of the study is to investigate how different external pressures such as climate change, digitalization, urbanization and aging are involved in the use of novelties, and how these dynamics may be part of accelerating changes. In the context of car sharing and using the multi-level perspective from transition studies, the study investigates the role of dynamic interplay between landscape pressure, users in niches, and acceleration of sustainability transition in mobility.  

The study investigates four topics: (1) how car sharing emerges in regards to the privately owned car (2) how environmental concerns and smartphone use are part of the repeated use of car sharing in an urban household (3) how the role of places and policies are part of the use, and (4) how the aging population is involved in the emergence of car sharing.

The Ph.D. study is part of the Tempest project.

 

Thesis supervisor

  • Olav Wicken, (TIK)
  • Tom Erik Julsrud (TØI, Institute of Transport Economics, Department of Mobility and Organisation)

Commentators

  • Vibeke Nenseth (TØI, Institute of Transport Economics, Department of Safety, Security and Environment)
  • Lea Fuenfschilling (CIRCLE, Centre for innovation, research and competence in the learning economy, Lund University)

The seminar is open to everyone, and the manuscript is available upon request.

Published Nov. 12, 2018 10:54 AM - Last modified Nov. 21, 2018 9:51 AM