Shared Mobility

SAE International Publishes Set of Definitions for Shared Mobility Terms

October 3, 2018

Cartoon image of cars, vans, scooters, bikes, and people with a city skyline in the background

SAE International announces it has published new definitions for shared mobility terms – “Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Shared Mobility and Enabling Technologies – J3163™.”

A consequence of the ever-growing and -...

An Interview with Susan Shaheen, the “Mother” of Shared Mobility

October 13, 2018

Image of Susan Shaheen talking behind a podium

Lily Maxwell, smart cities content writer for iomob.net, interviews Susan Shaheen Ph.D., a pioneer in future mobility strategies. She was among the first to observe, research, and write about changing dynamics in shared mobility and the likely scenarios through which automated vehicles will gain prominence. She is an internationally recognized expert in mobility and...

Uber and Lyft are driving toward IPOs

October 18, 2018

Image of a car door with stickers on it

Uber and Lyft already compete in ride-hailing, ride-sharing, bike-sharing and e-scooters. Next year, they'll be competing for investors, too: Both companies are reportedly planning initial public offerings for early 2019.

For years, the companies have subsidized rides to keep costs low for customers. That fueled their growth, which in turn pumped up their expected...

Scooters could improve mobility in low-income areas, but they have an image problem

December 5, 2018

Person on scooter and pedestrians crossing a street

Cities around the country are grappling with what transportation planners call "the last mile problem": how to get people who don’t drive from a transit stop to their final destination faster than walking. It’s an especially big issue in low-income neighborhoods where many people don’t own cars and transit service can be spotty.

Dockless electric...

UC Berkeley releases report on disaster evacuations

July 12, 2019

Image of "UC Berkeley releases report on disaster evacuations" headline

BERKELEY — A U.C. Berkeley team that conducted wildfire evacuation focus group research in Lake County released a report this week that recommends more use by government agencies of the sharing economy during disaster evacuations.

The report, entitled “Current State of the Sharing Economy and Evacuations: Lessons from...

Planning for Shared Mobility

Adam Cohen
Susan Shaheen, PhD
2018
In recent years, economic, environmental, and social forces have quickly given rise to the “sharing economy,” a collective of entrepreneurs and consumers leveraging technology to share resources, save money, and generate capital. Homesharing services, such as Airbnb, and peer-to-peer carsharing services, such as Getaround, have become part of a sociodemographic trend that has pushed the sharing economy from the fringe and more to the mainstream. The role of shared mobility in the broader landscape of urban mobility has become a frequent topic of discussion. Major shared transportation modes—...

Shared e-scooters can be sustainable—but there’s a catch

August 7, 2023

Person using Lime scooter

Susan Shaheen, UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center Co-Director discusses scooter sharing's emission impacts with Popular Science.

Although the pilot program revealed that a number of users replaced motor vehicle travel with e-scooter sharing, “it also found that scooter-sharing replaced some lower emission active...

Creative Reallocation of Curbs, Streets, Sidewalks Accelerated by the Pandemic May be Here to Stay

Susan Shaheen, Adam Cohen, Jacquelyn Broader
2023

Curb space has been traditionally designed for private vehicle parking, public transit, and passenger and commercial loading. However, in recent years, a growing number of newservices and activities have increased the demand for limited curb space, including passenger pick-up and drop-off; last-mile delivery (e.g., courier network services, personal delivery devices); electric vehicle (EV) charging; micromobility parking and use (e.g., personally owned and shared bikes and scooters); and carsharing services. The curb serves a variety of functions such as vehicle and device storage (...

TSRC's Cohen, Martin Earn Spot Awards

June 5, 2023

Adam Cohen Elliot Martin

Congratulations to Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) researchers Adam Cohen and Dr. Elliot Martin on earning spot Staff Appreciation and Recognition Awards!

Read more about their efforts...

Transportation Network Companies Might Be Pulling Riders from Public Transit, but This Could Change

Susan Shaheen, Elliot Martin, Adam Stocker
2023

Transportation Network Companies (TNCs, also known as ridehailing and ridesourcing) have expanded across California over the past decade and changed the way people travel. Using a smartphone, travelers can quickly summon a vehicle from almost anywhere and know what the estimated wait time, travel time, and cost will be before stepping into the vehicle. While TNCs are clearly addressing an unmet need for travelers, their growing popularity has raised a number of policy questions, including if TNCs are shifting people away from public transit and other travel modes (e.g., carshare,...