Dangerous service: accident rate with carsharing cars is 7 times higher than average

Moscow official and traffic safety blogger Alexander Evsin has devoted several recent publications to the topic of car sharing. Yevsin paid special attention to car accidents involving cars belonging to car-sharing companies. In general, the statistics indicate an extremely high accident rate in the car sharing segment - 7 times (!) Higher than the average accident rate. After analyzing the statistical data, Evsin came to the conclusion that the existing system urgently needs to be changed:

“Every day I study accident reports strengthens me in the opinion that the concept of“ irresponsibility ”of car sharing, paying per minute for short trips, as well as parking benefits, lead to undesirable evolutionary processes and negative consequences. A large number of accidents with carsharing are characterized by completely unreasonable confidence of drivers in their capabilities and capabilities of the car, inability and other negative circumstances that are a consequence of the concept of this service.

I believe that car-sharing drivers should have the full range of driver's responsibility for the vehicle. Alcolocks are also needed. But the most important thing is to change the tariff policy so that excessively short trips are economically inexpedient. A car should be rented when you need a car, not a thrill. A car is always a responsibility. In the meantime, the accident rate in the car sharing segment exceeds the total accident rate by seven times.

This is not just an operator flaw, and not just an absurd accident. This is a regularity - there are unacceptably many accidents, and there is only one reason - incorrect fundamental rules for using car sharing. With such a foundation: take it even for a minute, drive without responsibility, freedom of movement, free parking for the client, short-term tariffs - the problems cannot be solved. It will only grow. The only way out is to change a number of rules. I consider the following changes to be the most important.

1. Travel less than 12 hours should be made economically impractical. Those. the minimum rental period is 12 hours.
2. Full payment for parking by the customer during use. The preferential subscription should only be used for unoccupied car sharing, i.e. it is the operator who is entitled to the preferential payment, not the client.
3. Alcolocks in every car. This is not just a common sense requirement, given the nature of the very large number of clients and the statistics available. This is a direct provision for the requirements of the traffic rules to prohibit the transfer of the right to drive to a drunken person. The operator must be obliged to do this! Alkozamok copes with this quite effectively.
4. The return of the car from the parking lot only by the client who committed the violation.
5. It is forbidden to leave faulty cars or without fuel in any places where it interferes with other road users. Those. the car broke down on the road, take it away.

The machine is always RESPONSIBILITY! If you want irresponsibility - be a passenger in a taxi or use public transport. If you want to drive, you are endowed with the full range of driver responsibilities and the full range of controls, including paying for parking. And nothing else.

However, not everyone agreed with Yevsin.

- The first point basically kills the idea. Indeed, a car is sometimes needed for 15 minutes, and for 30, and for 2 hours, and for 24, and for three days. I used to actively use sharing at one time, and it really expands the possibilities when you don't have to bother with your own car. But even if you limit it to at least 24 hours, what guarantee does this give that the car won't be taken by an idiot who confuses the pedals?

Long lease is just a different business, different challenges, and a different approach. Yes, rent-a-car has existed for a very long time, and it will continue to exist. But sharing as a type of service will disappear. I do not know the statistics, but I am sure that 90 percent of the use of sharing is up to 6 hours ...

- The points:

1. Delirium. This undermines the concept of car sharing as a short trip.

2. I fully support, but this will not solve the parking problem. Yes, operators pay, but a car often takes a very long parking space.

Here the city should resolve the issue with the operators. Maybe introduce certain places only for carsharing in parking lots. Well, for example, out of 10 existing places 2 or 3. And if the driver left the car in another place, he will pay for its parking.

3. This is a necessary measure for all cars, not just for car sharing. But I would raise the minimum experience to 5 years and leave the service only for citizens of the Russian Federation.

4. This is already on the client's shoulders.

5. Operative evacuation of abandoned cars in the wrong places should be provided by the operator, and only then deal with the client.

Bottom line: it is strange that such measures are proposed by a data center specialist. It looks like he's not in the subject at all. Taxis with foreign citizens at the wheel, often with difficulty explaining themselves in Russian, pose a great danger, and they have never heard of the traffic rules at all.