The number of users of car-sharing services increased by about 44 times from 172,340 in 2013 to 7.7 million last year. (image: SoCar)
SEOUL, Sept. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of car-sharing service users who can borrow and return cars has increased more than 40-fold over the past five years.
According to data submitted by the Korea Road Traffic Authority to Rep. Lee Hu-sam of the ruling Democratic Party, the number of users of car-sharing services increased by about 44 times from 172,340 in 2013 to 7.7 million last year.
The number of vehicles also jumped 13-fold to 17,500 from 1,314 during the same period.
However, the number of accidents also surged as the number of service users exceeded 7 million. The number of car-sharing service accidents quadrupled from 4,631 in 2015 to 19,320 in 2018.
During the same period, the number of injured also quadrupled from 2,115 to 8,353.
Meanwhile, cases of unlicensed driving by minors are also on the rise. Before the introduction of car-sharing services, there were 43 accidents involving unlicensed teenagers driving rental cars in 2011.
On the other hand, the number of minors driving has been on the rise since 2012 when car-sharing services first appeared. The number increased from 68 in 2012 to 104 in 2017.
Lee stressed the need to establish safer car-sharing culture.
He said, “In order to prevent illegal theft of identity and unlicensed rental car accidents, the government needs to strengthen its own authentication system to establish a safe car-sharing culture.”
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
