In Flanders, the number of people making use of carshare schemes is on the rise. The figure was up 22 per cent in only a year. In addition, some 24 million trips were made in Belgium using a share scooter or share bicycle. The figures come from a report by Way To Go, which has mapped all forms of shared mobility in Belgium for the first time. ‘We see that shared mobility is well established,’ says Jeffrey Matthijs of Way To Go.
Share cars, share bikes and share scooters are today visible in most towns and cities. They are especially present in the larger conurbations. 50,000 share vehicles, i.e. 21,721 share bikes, 18,764 share scooters and 8,976 share cars mean shared mobility has become a significant part of Belgium’s mobility landscape.
Way To Go, the former Autodelen.net, has been mapping car-sharing figures for several years, but is now presenting a picture of all forms of shared mobility for a first time. ‘We wanted to do this to gauge the growth of shared mobility in the future,’ says director Jeffrey Matthijs. ‘But also, to know which policies and market developments are having the biggest impact.’
Way To Go was able to collect data from 24 out of 30 shared mobility providers. The data in the report is not exhaustive, but does offer several insights. ‘We see that shared-mobility is well established,’ says Matthijs.
Shared mobility on the rise
64 per cent of the country's 21,721 share bikes are being used in Flanders. The figure reveals how popular this phenomenon is in northern Belgium. Brussels contributes 35 per cent to this total, while the figure for Wallonia is a paltry 1 per cent. Among share scooters, Brussels, with more than half (52 per cent) of the total of 18,764 share scooters reigns supreme.
The report not only plots the number of shared vehicles but also their use. Share bikes and scooters made almost 24 million trips in 2024, accounting for almost 2 million active users. Flanders dominates bicycle use with 76.7 per cent of all trips, while 63.6 per cent of journeys by share scooter take place in Brussels.
Brussels also appears to be the leader in shared mobility per inhabitant. The capital has the highest density of shared vehicles with 6.1 share bicycles and 7.8 share scooters per 1,000 inhabitants. Flanders follows with 2.0 and 1.0 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants respectively, while Wallonia has a modest share of 0.1 share bikes and 0.6 share scooters per 1,000 inhabitants respectively.
‘Internationally, the Brussels region scores better than cities such as London and Rotterdam, but lags behind frontrunners like Paris,’ says Matthijs. ‘We also see that more share bikes and share steps generally leads to more use. That is an important conclusion.’
22 per cent more shared car users in Flanders
As this is the first time that the use of shared bicycles and shared scooters has been mapped, no comparison can be made with previous years. For shared cars, this can be done in Flanders. There, the number of active carshare users continues to rise sharply. In Flanders, for instance, there are 46,599 users. That represents a growth of 22 per cent compared to 2023. Together, they accounted for 749,009 trips.
How many carshare users there are in Wallonia and Brussels is unclear. ‘We did request the figures, but the providers do not want to release them,’ Matthijs says.