Car sharing
Car sharing is a fully-fledged, cost-effective and sustainable alternative to owning your own car. With car sharing, you have the right type and size of vehicle for every purpose, whenever you want.
Together with other modes of eco-friendly transport, car sharing enables comprehensive mobility without the need to own a car. This not only reduces the burden on the environment, but also saves you the cost of purchasing and maintaining your own car. You only pay when you actually use a car sharing vehicle. Car sharing providers also take care of cleaning and maintaining the vehicles, which saves you time. In addition, car-sharing vehicles are usually available for you in reserved parking spaces, eliminating the need to search for a parking space.
In Mainz, the two car-sharing providers book-n-drive and stadtmobil are currently active throughout the city with a large selection of car-sharing vehicles.
Book-n-drive
Book-n-drive is a nationwide car-sharing provider that operates a large number of car-sharing stations throughout the city of Mainz. It offers a wide range of different vehicle types, from small city cars to large vans, including electric vehicles. The station-based car-sharing network is supplemented by the flexible "cityFlitzer" stations.
stadtmobil Rhine-Main
The extensive stadtmobil station network covers the entire Rhine-Main area and includes locations such as Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. Since June 2025, stadtmobil has also been continuing the UrStrom Mobil service in Mainz. In addition, users have access to a wide range of vehicles of all classes – including hybrid and electric cars – throughout Germany.
Car sharing on public roads
A change in the law since 2020 has made it possible to set up car-sharing parking spaces on public roads. Compared to private parking spaces, some of which are hidden away in courtyards, for example, these are much more visible and more attractive to users in terms of location. This also allows car-sharing services to be expanded in areas where no private parking spaces are available.
The state capital of Mainz has taken advantage of this opportunity and, in 2021 and 2024, awarded a total of 100 car-sharing parking spaces on public roads, spread across 50 stations, to the provider book-n-drive as part of a tender process.
These car-sharing parking spaces are marked with the signs shown on the right and may only be used by car-sharing vehicles from the provider book-n-drive. If private vehicles are nevertheless parked there in violation of the rules, they may be towed away. In addition, such parking behavior is inconsiderate, as it significantly disrupts the operation of the car-sharing service, since incorrectly parked vehicles prevent car-sharing users from returning the rented vehicles to the stations.