CARNDUGE is an interdisciplinary project, where research institutes, government agencies and private companies collaborate at both national and international level to create knowledge and expertise for a more innovative and sustainable transport system.
Firstly, it will stimulate car owners, with low car utilization, to switch to an available carsharing service by using innovative nudging techniques. Switching from privately owned to a shared vehicle has the potential to vastly improve household economics, promote efficient use of the passenger car fleet, free up city space and lower total emissions from the production and use of passenger cars. This project will test the effectiveness of nudging in the transport sector, through top-of-the-line methods by using a large-scale Randomized Controlled Trial in the field. One of the tools that will be developed for the nudging experiment, the carsharing calculator, will be made available to use after the end of the project.
Secondly, CARNUDGE will increase knowledge about effective and sustainable transport solutions by empirically testing the causal effect of urban parking policies on traffic, car ownership decisions and carsharing membership. The project will combine different data sources to create a new and unique disaggregate dataset and provide valuable insights into the relatively unexplored phenomenon of carsharing in relation to car owning and the role of parking policies. We will exploit natural experiments and analyze objective data using state-of-the-art methods in addition to survey data.
Lastly, this project will not only enhance the knowledge about the effectiveness of different technologies and policies, but it could also directly contribute to a larger shift into carsharing. Carsharing companies are developing new business models and pursuing innovative technological solutions in order to strengthen carsharing as a competitor to car owning. By spurring growth in the carsharing market and thus increasing the scope for competition and innovation, CARNUDGE has the potential to contribute to a more sustainable transport sector and future-oriented urban development.
