We continue to work hard on the car sharing situation in London with Zipcar, the provider that had around 90% of the market, leaving the city. The latest developments and CoMoUK’s role are outlined below.
You can also see more below on how car sharing is going in Brussels and how lift sharing is going in France. We think it is important to keep an international frame of reference on all shared mobility modes.
One piece of good news is that DfT is giving the go-ahead to more shared e-scooter trials – more on this below too – although we want to see more happen in that space also.
Our Shared Transport Conference which takes place in just a month's time is now full. I am hugely looking forward to seeing you all there.
Finally, we’re delighted to be sharing the final report of our Motability Foundation-funded project to boost the use of standard equipment shared micromobility by disabled people and to be getting going on our first European project for a number of years.
Keep in touch,
Richard Dilks
Chief Executive, CoMoUK
News & insights 🗞️
The Zipcar exit and future of car sharing in London
With Zipcar’s exit confirmed and the cars and vans themselves disappearing from London’s streets, CoMoUK has been busy.
We have got a monthly meeting up and running with and for boroughs. We are liaising frequently with all existing and any potential new operators.
We were pleased to take part in a roundtable hosted by the London Deputy Mayors for Transport and for Environment. There were around 20 boroughs in attendance as well as operators. This was a positive discussion and meeting, but we need concrete steps to be taken. We continue to liaise with all stakeholders on this and are tracking progress on our website.
Second wave of shared e-scooter trials gets the go ahead from DfT
We are delighted to report that DfT has given the green light to more shared e-scooter trials. We do not yet know further details as it is now up to the local authorities and operators potentially involved to move forward. DfT has circulated our contact details to them in case we can be of help.
We are hopeful that all those areas that expressed interest in a new trial will be able to have one.
We continue to press the case to Government for primary legislation to give e-scooters their much-needed long-term legal status; this is an encouraging decision from Government in the meantime. The UK remains the only comparable country without that legal status.
After the May elections we will be pressing the new Welsh and Scottish governments for them to clear the parliamentary hurdles they need to in order to potentially have shared e-scooter trials beyond England.
Increasing the use of shared micromobility by disabled people
In 2025, CoMoUK worked on a project funded by Motability Foundation to test a number of outreach and confidence building activities to support disabled people to use the existing models of shared e-bikes and e-scooters.
The project, delivered in partnership with Cycling UK in Salford, Salford City Council, Lime and Beryl, has now finished and we are now in a position to share the findings and recommendations.
Promotion via networks of local charities and Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) proved the most effective way of engaging people to come along to the training sessions. These sessions were successful in building the skills and confidence of potential users by allowing hands-on practice in a safe environment and in learning how to use the app. Following the training, 71% of participants said that they were likely to use the Starling Bank e-bikes independently and 43% stated the same expectation for their ongoing use of Lime e-scooter.
The project showed that offering target promotion and a chance to try the modes in safe and supported environment can lead to more disabled people enjoying the benefits of shared micromobility modes.
CoMoUK joins partners to kick off new EU Horizon project focusing on 15 min cities 🚘
We were pleased to join partner organisations this week from Bristol, Graz (Austria) and Helsingborg (Sweden), for the first in-person meeting of this exciting new EU funded project.
Over the next 2.5 years CoMoUK will support the local authority and academic partners, as together we take a systems approach in considering the use of shared cars to support successful 15 min neighbourhoods. Through three case studies, the project will utilise modelling and visualisation methodologies to understand shared car usage, both in the city centre and suburban streets of the chosen location. The data will be used to help inform future plans around how car sharing can successfully substitute private vehicle ownership.
This project is part of the wider 15-minute City Transition Pathway (15mC TP) project which aims to enable analysis, development and testing of ideas, tools and innovations for 15-minute cities within co-creative and transdisciplinary settings.
Hand control adaptation for community car club
Thanks to generous grants from Todmorden Town Council and The Rotary Club of Hebden Bridge, POD community car club in the Calder Valley, have adapted one of their vehicles so that it can be used by disabled drivers.
This includes new brake and accelerator hand controls, and a quick-release steering wheel bracket for ball or peg grips. The car can still be driven in the standard way by all drivers. Wheelchair users Dave and Krishna are pictured here at the demo in June.
Comparisons on car sharing – Brussels
The latest user data from the Belgian capital shows that 6 out of 10 people ditched their private car in the switch to car sharing.
It also shows that 58% of Cambio users (the back to bay system) and 67% of Poppy users (the free floating system) would buy a car if car sharing disappeared from Brussels.
In last month’s newsletter we covered the French Government’s ambitions for car sharing in France. We were delighted to hear from Ali Clabburn of Mobilityways/Liftshare about the comparison between the UK and France on lift sharing.
It also makes for stark reading. Whereas in the UK the number of local authorities with any form of carpooling/lift sharing scheme has dropped by 75% in recent years, France has a National Carpooling Fund with an annual funding allocation of £200 million. This means grants are available for things like lift share platform integration in workplaces; local authority infrastructure such as priority lanes; employers providing tax-free liftsharing allowances of up to £700 per employee per year and first trip bonuses.
We have fed this into DfT and hope that the planned meeting between DfT officials and car sharing and lift sharing operators will be an opportunity to raise the UK’s game on lift sharing.
Shared Mobility Rocks - Vienna
There is no event quite like SMR, taking place this year in Vienna on 5 May.
The theme this year is ‘Time to Scale Up’ and you can get a flavour of the event here. A number of staff from CoMoUK have attended previous Shared Mobility Rocks and always enjoyed them and brought back useful insights.
Music festivals and transport conferences might not seem natural companions, but going to Shared Mobility Rocks might just change your view on that.
The call for contributions for the event is also now open: have an idea, project, or research you want to share? Get your backstage access and bring it to the stage! This is your chance to collaborate with mobility experts to discuss, refine, amplify your projects—and let them ROCK!
Events 🗓️
Webinar for authorities creating new shared micromobility schemes
28 February 2026
UK Shared Micromobility Best Practices – Lessons from Voi, Edinburgh, and Solent Transport, bringing together leading voices from three of the UK’s most successful programmes.
The event, our first in-person conference since 2019, is now sold out, but you can join the waitlist using the link below where you will also find full details of the schedule and speaker lineup:
"I love the whole idea of the car club. I can pick one up when needed and it’s so easy just using the app. No hidden extras, always simple to use. It was also great to use the electric car as it is something I am really interested in with my carbon footprint."
Female user from Edinburgh, 45-54, Annual Car Club Report 2024
