AUTHORS: Dawn Haines-Ian Skinner

The report explores how selected mobility services – car sharing, car pooling and bicycle pooling – are marketed, the extent to which this reflects the origins of the scheme and the type of media they use. The report shows that schemes have been set up for a wide range of reasons – by no means all environmental – with car pooling often aimed at reducing congestion and bicycle pooling often focusing on improving accessibility. Even when a scheme had been set up for environmental reasons, often it was not marketed in this way, as it was felt that an environmental message might restrict the service’s potential customer base. Marketing messages used tended to be positive and focus on the benefits to the individual of using the scheme.