Car dependence continues to impose substantial social and environmental costs, driving interest in alternatives. This qualitative study examines how commercial car sharing in Germany’s Frankfurt Rhine-Main region may support a transport transition. Guided by social practice theory, mobility biographies, and frame analysis, the research combines conventional with mobile go-along interviews to capture both meanings of car sharing and the situated performances through which it is learnt and used.

Findings show that embedding sharing in everyday routines can challenge taken-for-granted framings of automobility by cultivating new skills, responsibilities, and cross-modal coordination. However, as imagined futures often revert to private ownership, especially around family formation, their durability at the level of life scripts is limited. Private automobility’s promise of freedom to is reframed as freedom from ownership burdens, yet this relief is conditional. Platform rules, service areas, local parking regimes, and per-minute tariffs require new, hidden coordination work and lead to time pressures that limit expected spontaneity. Multimodal subjectivities are emerging but are unevenly distributed and risk rebound effects along with access gaps linked to coverage, digital skills, and time poverty.

The analysis indicates that shared mobility can shift practices without necessarily reconfiguring futures. Platform design and governance, including pricing, reservation windows, service zones, and sorting algorithms, can either destabilise or reinforce car-centric routines. Recommended measures include locating services near transit and incentivising hubs, moderating per-minute charges, clarifying local regulations, and widening access pathways. Further longitudinal research on the durability of change across life course transitions is needed.