The STP is the public transport organising authority in the Paris and Ile-de-France region. It coordinates the activities of public transport companies, defines fares, and distributes the proceeds from transport duties levied on employers and revenue from the sale of public transport passes. This paper presents one of its transport studies, investigating car sharing in the Ile-de-France and the possible role of public authorities in promoting it. `Car sharing' is defined here as any arrangement where at least two drivers regularly share journeys by car. During the last ten years, three periods were especially important for the forming of car sharing in the region: (1) the European Union DRIVE II Programme (1992-94); (2) the severe public transport strike in December 1995; and (3) 1996 on, when private companies became interested in promoting car sharing. In this last period, the most interesting developments were two car-sharing schemes in the outskirts of Paris, operated by Nestle France and Disneyland Paris. The paper presents the preliminary results of STP's study of these schemes, and includes several comparative tables. It lists STP's goals in evaluating these schemes, discusses their context and objectives, and outlines the main results, car-sharers' opinions of the systems, and benefits for the companies.
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