Recently, Beijing has announced the launch of its car-sharing scheme since the first day of this year, symbolizing sharing a car will not be criticized as carrying passengers illegally and without a business license.

As the spring festival approaches, returning home for reunion with the families is a big headache for many people. “It is not easy to buy a train ticket. A flight ticket is so costly. Bus trip exhausts people. Driving a private car is both convenient and fast.”

Obvious it is to see the advantages of car sharing. Car Sharing is becoming increasingly popular with its promise of personal convenience and low carbon. Complying with the national application of green traffic, it is really environment-friendly. But as it is not specifically stipulated in laws, sharing a car for a trip is susceptible to be illegal.

"It is much faster and cheaper to travel in one car. It is a nice way to go home during the holidays." Zuo works in Kunming and plans to go back to his hometown in Dehong, south of Yunnan, with several fellow townsmen. "Driving alone is likely to get bored as the trip is long. If traveling with other drivers, they can drive in a shift. It is safe."

Zhang owns a car and wants to travel to hometown. He said that if four people travel in one car, it is cost-saving and beneficial for everyone.

It is quite popular to go home by car sharing on the internet, but people are concerned about its illegality as it is not written in laws or rules in Kunming. Zuo has shared a car for several times, but he still worries that when the plan was exposed to relevant departments or was investigated by transport department or may cause safety problems.

Li lives in the northern urban area of the city and works at the airport, about 25km from the downtown. Sharing a car only costs about 200yuan a month, cheaper than taking an airport bus which costs 1,100yuan for 22 days, and also cheaper than self-driving, at least 1,364 yuan for a month.

Li said when sharing a car for a trip is legalized in Beijing, he sees hope. “I hope Kunming can carry out a similar rule to make car-sharing safe. Only in this way, can they feel at ease to share a car.”

"The road space in the city is limited. Making good use of the private car without adding more new cars does good to relief the traffic problems." Chen, from the City Design And Research Institute in Kunming said that the travel ratio for taxi and private car during the rush time is 1:9. But most private cars are not fully occupied, which is resource-wasting. If the car-sharing is legalized, it can help reduce congestion.

Lawyer:

Carrying passengers illegally without a business license aims at making money. It differs from sharing a car. Driving home or to workplace is to share the fees for toll and fuel. If the car owner does not make money, it can not be considered as illegally driving. It is a win-win way for car owner, lift-taker, and urban manager.

Transport Bureau:

It is hard to legalize car sharing in Kunming now, as the nonstandard car sharing may bring disorders to the whole transport industry. Operational vehicles are required to be examined regularly, and drivers are required to be trained. The unprofessional private car driving may bring risks to safe journey.

Background:

Car-sharing schemes are believed to have originated in Switzerland in the 1940s as locals organized car cooperatives, with drivers handing car keys onto the next user when they had finished. It was in the 1970s that the schemes really took off in Europe. Today, the Dutch capital Amsterdam has 310 parking locations for shared cars.