Cties like Oslo, Madrid, Milan, Brussels, Helsinki, Athens & Copenhagen pledged to ban or reduce diesel cars and adopt alternative ways of transportation within the next 5-10 years. Private companies are also setting up car-free projects. For example, BMW is creating a ''Hyperloop'' for bikes & e-bikes where riders will be cycling under a clear ceiling. All these examples showcase that cities are already implementing a strategy where combustion cars shall be replaced from various kinds of light vehicles, such as e-scooters, three-wheeler and bicycles. 

This new era of personal transport favors sharing schemes which are becoming more and more popular all over Europe. Ride sharing schemes have the potential to alleviate traffic congestion, offer quick & cost-effective commute solutions to its users. Nowadays the majority of the planet’s citizens lives in urban environments, a proportion which in fact is anticipated to raise within the next 30 years. Thereby, the way people move around big or small cities is a crucial part of their daily life.

Commuting affects productivity, health, safety and welfare both the individual and the society as a whole. As a matter of fact, plenty of cities are planning to reduce the number of cars used in their central areas, that is why they adopt different kind of vehicle sharing concepts.

These sharing schemes allow riders to use a vehicle in order to move from point A to point B. Bike sharing (link to previous blog) offers many advantages to users and to the communities in which they are working. Bike trips reduce traffic jam on the roads, free up parking spaces, and improve air quality. Consequently, getting more people active improves the health of a community and will reduce healthcare costs in that community.

Bike sharing also works well with transit, allowing people to more easily make the connection from their bus stop to their final destination. Scooter sharing is also very popular and flexible means of door to door transportation. Scooter sharing offers the possibility for a wider ranges compared to bike sharing. This means that The majority of people will use scooters when it comes to longer distances of 5 km. On the whole, ride sharing is a very popular way of transport because its ease of use, the positive riding experience, the convenience and the low price of the ride. Every user can register through a mobile application with a simple process. Once registered the rider can track the nearest vehicle next to him/her, reserve it and unlock it through the app with a tap of a button!

Right now, bike sharing notion is expanding in Europe with rapid pace. Behind every successful sharing scheme there is a credible technology provider who guarantees the safety and the efficiency of the operations. COMODULE, the global leader in IoT has developed a full eco system which enables operators to manage their sharing networks through an online platform, a hardware device, and a smart phone application. So far, this holistic system has been used from various operators in different countries all over the world, such as goUrban in Vienna, EVO in Germany, EGRET in Switzerland, Clean Motion in New Delhi, and others.

This all-inclusive technological system enables operators to: monitor & control vehicles remotely, GEO-locate the vehicles, deter thefts, collect diagnostic data about the health of each bike, support users in real time and detect crashes in case of accidents. This all-inclusive system helps also users to: a) find the closest vehicle to them, b) navigate to their destination, c) get information about the battery status of the vehicle, d) make payments online and e) request instant help from the service provider, simply and conveniently.