are more ecological than other companies. When there were so many carsharers using Opal, we got a general contract discount up to 80% of the price. We buy 100-150 cars each year in the German network. GB: Can people outside Germany use the German network's relationship with Opal? CP: No, because of import/export things. Maybe Austria, because it is in the European Union, but not Switzerland. Austria only has 25 cars so they can't reach the same discount. They are in 10 cities, including Salzburg, Vienna, Graz, Linz and Innsbruck. But in Switzerland, carsharing is very strong. GB: When you help new groups start-up, what are the common problems, and solutions? CP: Now when we establish a new group it is very organized. We have 4 things to offer: 1. Computer software. We go and install it and teach them to use it. When you teach the software, this covers most of the problems. 2. Safes with electror\ic access control. We explain how it works, how to repair them and how to use them. 3. A box of 100 formulas. contracts. everything written down, everything you need for the people and the organization. So that you have control lists and everything you need. 4. Teaching. Three times for 3-4 days over the course of 3 months, we go and teach them. So you have 2 phases, one pre-start and one starting. So after 10 months, the thing runs, and they learn how it works - parking spaces, insurance ... and it works pretty good. In the beginning, we couldn't offer a real schooling or teaching because we ourselves didn't know how it worked. So we just went there one afternoon and explained how to do this and that, and then they had to have their own experiences... so it took them 3 years to get running. We had to invent everything ourselves. Two parts: 1. marketing , 2. financial, inner workings, control. Carsharing organizations must know that they have to reach car usage of 50%. If they don't, they can't do it. We have to teach controlling, how to make contracts with the insurance, how to buy the cars, how to affix·the logo, how to speak with the station chief that looks after the car... And the other part is how to go to the public: convincing people to sell their cars and join is a special mixture of political, ecological, and economical reasons. Tell them that they use the car only one hour per day and it's cheaper to have a collective car. It is important to say this in the right way, with not too much political and ecological reasoning because people don't want to hear it. They are interested in money. So you have to tell them something about money. In the beginning, we made this mistake because in our heads, ecological reasons were the most important. We weren't interested in money. Then we realized we could reduce traffic with this system. You need to have markets if you want thousands of car drivers reducing driving. So we changed a bit, we reduced the number of Page 50 RAIN Summer 1996 Volume XV, Number 1 ecological and political arguments. In the recent leaflet you can read very little about ecological reasons, just that STATTAUTO is convenient, STATTAUTO is cheap, STATTAUTO is better for everybody. In the older ones we said how pollution was killing people and forests, how many tons of pollution every year ... I think it is very important to train a group to the right arguments because normally idealistic people start carsharing. It is hard to get this into to their heads. Many did not want to surrender their ideas in favor of using the m£!rket to make it work. There are so many grassroots groups that hope to convince people by telling the truth. But truth is cheap ... DJ: Is there a point when you have to tell eco-people that STATTAUTO is·still eco? Are there environmental groups that don't think carsharing is environmental? CP: Yes, there are some who don't ~ant to support STATTAUTO. The Berlin Green Party says they don't want to support STATTAUTO because we are dealing with cars.. We tried to tell them, they are naive because car-using isn't a phenomenon they can just deny. It doesn't help to deny it. But we can't convince them. There is a more realistic wing of the Greens in other parts of Germany. In Berlin, we have a more fundamentalist wing of the Greens. They say that with our system there are people who join who couldn't afford to drive a car before. But many scientific surveys really have proven that some people who couldn't afford a car join, but there are so many people that sell their cars that there is a benefit. One STATTAUTO car pushes 5 cars away. "Collective car using is the modern form ofcar using where there is good public transit." GB: Now, when you campaign, how do you explain STATTAUTO? CP: Collective car using is the modern form of car using where there is good public transit. Collective car using is the modern form because in cities, cars are used only one hour a day and are standing around, using space 23 hours a day. And so, it is possible to have more people using one car without any reduction in their mobility. Then it is so reasonable, we are convinced that people will do it. The problem now is not that everyone wants to own a private car but that he wants to be able to use the car whenever he wants. So he owns the car to get the possibility of driving. If we guarantee the possibility of driving without the car-owning, then J think this is the key to reducing car traffic. Because this gets rid of the emotional contact of people to their cars. And I think this emotion is not strong enough to hold the private car owners to their cars. There have to be rational reasons for breaking the relationship·, so we offer the same opportunities as private car ownership.
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