Life as it is: Vehicle Sharing in a Cohousing

At the beginning of 2025, Mpact sent out a survey to several cohousing communities that make use of the Cozywheels platform to share vehicles. Cozywheels is a platform for peer-to-peer vehicle sharing between neighbours, operating nationwide and offereing shared cars, e-bikes, cargo bikes, and adapted vehicles. With this survey, Mpact wanted to gather input from cohousing communities that use Cozywheels to share cars and bicycles among themselves. The results of this survey will feed into the SHARE-North Squared reports and recommendations. 

The residents of De Wijgaard cohousing project in Ghent did not just return their completed surveys; they also sent the Mpact project managers an invitation to visit. “We would be happy to set some time aside to share our user experience with you” one of the residents, Pieter, wrote.

No sooner said than done. In September, Eva Missinne and Jelten Baguet headed to Ghent’s Dampoort neighbourhood to visit the ‘De Wijgaard’ cohousing project. It quickly became clear: this is a special housing project, set up by and for the residents.

They walked through the green communal garden, past the shared laundry room, towards a large, shared kitchen with a dining hall and lounge area. The smell of freshly made pumpkin soup greeted them: every Wednesday, the residents enjoy a home-made lunch here together. 

Some of the Cozywheels users joined Eva and Jelten at the table to explain how they organise the peer-to-peer car sharing practically within their cohousing community, and why they opted for Cozywheels: “We know each other and work based on trust. That is easier in a closed sharing system, like Cozywheels” one resident explained.

In total, 25 households live in the Wijgaard cohousing project. The community is part of Bijgaardehof, the largest cohousing project in Belgium, and is within walking distance of the Dampoort railway station, east of Ghent’s historical centre. The residents of De Wijgaard have been sharing cars with each other since the start in 2022. Currently, four owners make their cars available via Cozywheels, including one electric and one hybrid vehicle. 

Everyone around the table finds that car sharing in the cohousing community runs very smoothly. The residents use a key safe and primarily communicate via their internal chat group. For all cars, they have agreed to use a price per kilometre of 0.38 euros. 

There is always room for improvement, of course. Therefore, during their visit, Eva and Jelten collected feedback in order to adapt Cozywheels further to the needs of cohousing projects. Many valuable suggestions to further improve our service emerged during the conversation. 

As shared mobility enthusiasts, Eva and Jelten’s visit was only complete after having seen the Cozywheels cars in person. After the soup and the engaging conversation, Jozefien, one of the users, took them to the parking area where the Cozywheels cars are located. In the same garage, a row of go-karts stood ready for the children. “That is actually car sharing too, is it not?” another resident, Pieter, laughed. “Start them young!” 

On our way out, we passed the communal workshop, where one of the residents was busy repairing a bicycle. It served as another reminder: sharing space and belongings is second nature here.