Sustainable driving
The requirements of sustainable driving are progressing quickly. At the moment, means include sustainable propulsion powers, ridesharing, and communal use of cars.
Gas cars and electric cars
There are currently three gas car fueling stations (2020) and tens of electric car charging stations in the Vaasa region. More stations are being planned by different operators.
The state-owned company Traffic Management Finland operates the Traffic situation website which includes the locations and basic information of both gas car fueling stations as well as electric car charging stations.
Latauskartta.fi is a service that shows the descriptions and locations of electric car charging stations. There are photos of many stations and the color coding of different charging types is clear.
The number of first-time registrations of both petrol and diesel cars have decreased in the past few years in Finland. Different types of gas and electric cars have gained in popularity. Vaasa city public transport has used buses fueled with biogas since 2017.
The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE has compiled a small guide to getting a sustainable car. With the car calculator, you can compare how different car propulsion powers accumulate emissions and costs in use.
Ridesharing
It is common to work outside of one's own neighbourhood in the Vaasa region. It is suggested to join regional ridesharing circles (can be found on Facebook, for example) or start creating a ridesharing network, because there are always people moving around. Regular ridesharing can ease the costs of transport on a yearly level. Even one ridesharing day a week will make a difference!
Car peer rental and communal use
A car’s usage rate is on average low, most often a car is in use less than 10 percent of the time. That is why one form of sustainable driving is peer rental and communal use.
A communal use car service is an operating model in which the users of the service can rent a car for their use for example on an hourly or daily rate. The cars in the service are only meant for communal use. Potential service environments could be large housing associations or student housings.
Mini-Lifti is a car sharing concept for all Vaasa residents. On weekdays, the cars are used by city employees, but in the evenings and weekends anyone can rent them freely.
