Copenhagen creates parking lots only for e-car sharing services

1,000 such spaces, strategically placed near public transit hubs, will help rethink the place of the car in the city

According to the latest figures, car ownership in Copenhagen is growing, and the local authorities are not happy about it. Their aim is to actually reverse the trend and part of the plan is to encourage the use of electric car-sharing services. And in order to boost them, the officials announced that 1,000 parking spaces only for shared e-cars will be added next to important traffic hubs.

The first one hundred of these parking lots are already being created, with another 300 to be implemented next year and an additional 600 in 2025. The announced step comes from a realization that despite the growing availability of public transit options and cycling infrastructure, now and then some citizens will also need access to cars at critical points and times.

By creating dedicated parking spaces for the electric city cars at traffic junctions, we make it easy to combine public transport and shared cars. In this way, we reduce the need to own your own car in Copenhagen, and I am quite satisfied with that,” says Line Barfod, Mayor for Technology and Environment.

Cars – can’t live with them…or without them

The idea behind the creation of dedicated e-car parking spaces came about from a dual realization. On one hand, private car ownership in Copenhagen has grown from 104,343 to 142,441 in a decade, meaning that the citizens still find cars necessary.

On the other hand, though, studies have shown that up to one in four cars are stationary from Monday to Friday. For Line Barfod, this suggests that for this group of owners, the car is not so essential to their daily lives, and easy access to car-sharing services will do the job just fine. The benefit would be the lessening of cars in the city and the optimization of scarce urban space.