Master’s Thesis
Attributable to the political, social and economic transformations that occurred in Georgia during the last decade, the transport sector of Tbilisi undergoes significant changes. Subsequently, the city’s environment is facing the problems of increasing air pollution, traffic congestion, noise, and limit of place, as well as an overall decline of the social security. Therefore, a commitment to new transport organization and policy framework is needed, in order to ensure the suitable and efficient transportation, along with maintenance of the environmental standards in the city. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the current transport sector of Tbilisi, determine the problems that occur and propose the possible solutions of improvement of existing situation. Furthermore, based on experience to deal with similar problems in western countries, this study investigates the possibilities of introduction of car sharing principles into the transport sector of Tbilisi in order to overcome the environmental side effects of transportation in the city. This study indicates that the major problems in transport sector of Tbilisi arise with increase of driving of private modes of transport. Consequently, this study suggests that the possible solutions of improvement of existing situation are connected to the consideration of the transport sector of Tbilisi under the sustainable transportation concept. Accordingly, this research implies that the measures towards sustainability in the city’s transport sector should be based on direct policy measures that imply advanced organization, management and provision of urban transport system as well as on indirect measures and policies, addressed at the activities and services, which generate personal transport demand. Regarding the indirect measures and policies to deal with the increasing number of personal transportation in the city, this paper suggests that car sharing practices in Tbilisi could play an important role in achievement of sustainable transportation by influencing the decrease of excessive private car ownership trend. Furthermore, analysing the possibilities of implementation of car sharing practices in Tbilisi, this study found that car sharing practices could rationalize the travelling behaviour of participants, benefiting on the other hand whole society by decreasing the total amount of private car flow in the city. On the other hand, this research revealed that despite potential cost-saving attractiveness for participants, and positive environmental outcomes, there are several possible barriers to implementation. The most important barriers of implementation are connected to the issue of existing travel behavior of potential participants and low public and political accessibility.