Carsharing Service ShareNow Has Left D.C. What Could Come Next?

March 3, 2020

photo of car2go vehicle

ShareNow — previously known as car2go — officially shut down its carsharing business in D.C. and North America over the weekend after eight years in the city. Despite its departure, experts say that carsharing isn’t struggling here in the D.C. region.

“Washington D.C. is actually one of the strongest marketplaces for these types of on-demand options in the entire United States,” said Susan Shaheen, a professor of engineering who co-directs the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California Berkeley.

Shaheen attributes D.C.’s strong use of shared mobility services — carsharing, ride-hailing, bike-sharing, and e-scooters, to name a few — to relative support from local government and general walkability.

That means, Shaheen said, that D.C.-area residents are more used to making choices about how to get around. The relationship between different shared mobility services is both competitive and complementary, she thinks — something illustrated in studies she conducted examining the effect of the rise of ride-hailing on carsharing...

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WAMU