Mobility as Sharing Economy Service in Päijät-Häme, Finland
Sharing economy is an integral part of the circular economy, in which people are not product owners but rather users or members of a community that collaboratively owns these products.
CECI (Citizen involvement in circular economy implementation) project aims at passing on experiences and knowledge about sharing and circular economy practices among the eight partners from six countries: Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, France, and Spain. The project is funded by Interreg Europe and administered by LAB University of Applied Sciences. Its main goal is to promote citizen participation in sharing and circular economy.
Mobile applications promoting sustainable mobility
In recent years, the sharing economy has been gaining popularity, mostly thanks to the growth of digitalisation and user-friendly digital services. Among the sharing economy practices in the Päijät-Häme region, there is a couple of interesting mobile applications related to sustainable mobility.
Picture 1. These bike racks which use smart technology were installed in the fall of 2019. They are part of the smart bicycle lane that will be built in Lahti as part of the CitiCAP project. Photo: Mira Rissanen
CitiCAP – citizens’ cap and trade co-created project aims to implement a Personal Carbon Trading scheme for promoting sustainable and low-carbon mobility to reduce traffic emissions, collect digital data on mobility and develop new transport services for citizens in Lahti. The CitiCAP app allows the users to track the carbon footprint of their movement and gain various benefits by favouring sustainable modes of mobility. LAB University of Applied Sciences is one of the project partners.
Picture 2. During the test period of CitiCAP -app, it was possible to gain, e.g., bus tickets and reflectors by using sustainable modes of mobility. Photo: Mira Rissanen
HyppääKyytiin is a ridesharing application suited especially well for people with a close-knit group around the same hobby or destination. The app can make travelling to hobbies and sport-related activities more ecological and easier. The service is subject to a charge, but the money raised from it is mainly directed to the common good, such as the development of children’s hobbies.
The article was originally published in LAB Focus on 5.6.2020: https://blogit.lab.fi/labfocus/en/mobility-as-sharing-economy-service-in-paijat-hame/.
