How this country is encouraging green mobility

People love their cars in countries like Australia. The private vehicle dominates the transport landscape, with 72% of mobility trips taking place in a car, significantly outpacing walking or cycling (15%), public transport (13%) or rideshare and taxi (1%). But as we look to the future, there are several reasons to question if car dependence is sustainable.

For many years we have known that private car use is exacerbating numerous challenges in our cities, including congestion, carbon emissions and cost of living increases. There is a growing body of research that electric vehicles are an important part of the solution, but we must also shift the ‘one person, one car’ mentality to include walking, cycling, vehicle sharing and public transport. But how do we get there?

Cities around the world have been working to solve this issue for decades but advances in technology and transport services are putting cities in a better position to tackle the challenge head-on.

To accelerate the transition, Uber Australia wanted to understand the practical and behavioural barriers to having ‘one less car’ and designed an experiment to see how 58 people from across the country would adapt.

Uber ran a first-of-its-kind trial, One Less Car, in partnership with behavioural scientists The Behavioural Architects, micro-mobility company Lime, e-bike subscription service Lug+Carrie and Uber Carshare.

The trial sought to explore the challenges and opportunities of car-light lifestyles, and it saw 58 everyday Australians give up one of their cars – going from one to zero, or two+ to one+ – and use other modes of transport as they went about their lives for four weeks.

Taking place from May to June 2023, the One Less Car trial reviewed thousands of expressions of interest before 58 Australians were selected across the country’s state/territory capital cities to participate. A range of people across different stages of life and car-ownership – between zero and two-plus cars – were included in the trial.

To offset their car usage, participants received a total of AUD1,350 ($870) in transport credits including public transport, a Lug+Carrie e-bike subscription (where available), an Uber One membership and credits for Uber, Lime and Uber Carshare. This amount was chosen to reflect the average yearly spend of about AUD16,000 associated with owning a car in Australia.

Upon giving up their cars, the weekly average number of trips among trial participants dropped slightly from 21 to 19; however, the number of transportation modes used increased significantly, averaging four modes of transport.

Empty nesters tended to favour car-based modes in their top four mode mix. As one participant notes, “I enjoyed using Ubers and not having to drive myself after having a licence for 17 years and now being 76.”

Walking, cycling and rideshare were found to be the “most valued players” of the trial, with the latter two increasing 4-5 times in frequency of use. Participants’ step counts also increased, and they reported health and well-being benefits, while satisfaction with their communities increased by 10%.

As one participant said: “I continue to increase my walking on a daily basis, I have one very happy dog… I’m continuing to see the value of not having a second car.”

Across all the different trip occasions, participants reported they were able to replace the majority of car trips with alternative transport methods. Walking was the biggest replacement for personal car use, increasing 75%, while the largest proportional gains were cycling and rideshare increasing 4-5 times.

Using e-bikes was a new experience for many participants with one stating: “The e-bike was probably the biggest surprise for me, I ride the bike down to the ferry most days to get to work – I know a lot of people use them these days but I’d never really thought to try it.” Train and bus trips increased 156% and 86% respectively, and carshare use tripled.

The research revealed three main barriers to going ‘car-light’ in Australia. These are:

This last point appears to contradict reality, as Uber analysis suggests cars driven less than 5,000 km/year, of which there are 2.5 million in Australia, may not make financial sense for their owners. The hidden cost of car-ownership could be a primary cause of this perception-reality mismatch.

In addition to “making four the norm”, Uber Australia is now encouraging city leaders to focus on seven key actions to support Australia’s transition to a car-light future.

The “big moves” that can have the biggest impact in the short term include:

Looking ahead to a sustainable and lasting impact, Uber also urges planners and governments to:

Full results are captured in Uber Australia's white paper, One Less Car: Shifting to a Sustainable Transport Future.