Shared Mobility

Mobility and the Sharing Economy: Impacts Synopsis – Spring 2015

Susan Shaheen, PhD, and Nelson Chan
2015

Shared-use mobility includes carsharing, personal vehicle sharing (or peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing), bikesharing, scooter sharing, shuttle services, ridesharing, and on-demand ride services. It can also include commercial delivery vehicles providing flexible goods movement. Shared-use mobility has had a transformative impact on many global cities by enhancing transportation accessibility while simultaneously reducing ownership of personal automobiles. In the context of carsharing and bikesharing, vehicles and bicycles are typically unattended, concentrated in a network of locations...

One-Way Carsharing's Evolution and Operator Perspectives from the Americas

Susan Shaheen, PhD
Nelson Chan
Helen Micheaux
2015

Classic roundtrip carsharing has been documented as a strategy to reduce car ownership and vehicle miles/kilometers traveled in urban areas. The expansion of carsharing and other forms of shared-use mobility have led to a growing interest in understanding the latest models. In recent years, one-way carsharing has gained momentum across the globe with 18 operators providing services in ten countries worldwide. One-way carsharing does not require its users to return the vehicle to the same location from which it was accessed (in contrast to roundtrip carsharing). Users typically pay by the...

Innovative Mobility Carsharing Outlook – Summer 2015

Susan Shaheen, PhD and Adam Cohen
2015

Since 1994, 83 carsharing programs have been deployed in the Americas — 45 are operational and 38 defunct. As of January 1, 2015, there were 20 active programs in Canada, 23 in the United States (U.S.), one program in Mexico, and one in Braziltotaling approximately 1,529,811 carsharing members sharing 22,134 vehicles in the Americas. The three largest carsharing operators in the U.S. and Canada support 95.9% and 83.2% of the total membership, respectively. Only one operator provides service in both Mexico and Brazil.

Zero- and Low-Emission Vehicles in U.S. Carsharing Fleets: Impacts of Exposure on Member Perceptions

Susan Shaheen, PhD, Elliot Martin, PhD, and Apaar Bansal
2015

The California Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate, adopted in 1990, was aimed at increasing the sale and dissemination of low- or zero-emission vehicles throughout the California auto market. ZEVs include plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) and all-electric vehicles (EVs). In an attempt to accelerate the exposure of ZEVs in the general population, in 2001, additional credits were allotted to automakers in return for placing ZEVs into transportation networks, such as carsharing fleets. This policy is set to end in 2018. This white paper presents the results of a study that evaluated the impacts...

Information Brief: Carsharing for Business – Zipcar Case Study & Impact Analysis

Susan Shaheen, PhD and Adam Stocker
2015

Business carsharing (or corporate carsharing) is a form of carsharing that enables commercial businesses to reduce or eliminate private vehicle eets typically maintained for business purposes. It may provide exclusive-use vehicles to clients that are shared among employees and departments or it may offer shared vehicles where the client accesses the vehicles as part of a larger carsharing eet (i.e., employees use the same vehicles that are shared by individuals and/or other business members) (Shaheen and Cohen, 2012).

Shared Mobility: Definitions, Industry Developments, and Early Understanding

Susan Shaheen, Nelson Chan, Apaar Bansal, and Adam Cohen
2015

Shared mobility – the shared use of a vehicle, bicycle, or other mode – is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to gain short-term access to transportation modes on an “as-needed” basis. The term shared mobilityincludes various forms of carsharing, bikesharing, ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling), and on-demand ride services. It can also include alternative transit services, such as paratransit, shuttles, and private transit services, called microtransit, which can supplement fixed-route bus and rail services. With many new options for mobility emerging, so...

Shared Mobility: Retrospective from Caltrans Shared Mobility Workshop

Susan Shaheen, PhD, Adam Stocker, and Apaar Bansal
2015

On September 8, 2015, UC Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC), in partnership with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), hosted “Shared Mobility: A Sustainability and Technologies Workshop” at the UC Davis Conference Center. The workshop facilitated a dialogue among nearly 100 participants representing 28 organizations. There were 61 attendees from Caltrans, with 38 from Headquarters and 23 from various district offices. Caltrans employee attendees included planners, engineers, researchers, managers, and directors. In addition, nine participants...

Just A Better Taxi? A Survey-Based Comparison of Taxis, Transit, and Ridesourcing Services in San Francisco

Lisa Rayle
Danielle Dai
Nelson Chan
Robert Cervero
Susan Shaheen, PhD
2016

In this study, we present exploratory evidence of how “ridesourcing” services (app-based, on-demand ride services like Uber and Lyft) are used in San Francisco. We explore who uses ridesourcing and for what reasons, how the ridesourcing market compares to that of traditional taxis, and how ridesourcing impacts the use of public transit and overall vehicle travel. In spring 2014, 380 completed intercept surveys were collected from three ridesourcing “hot spots” in San Francisco. We compare survey results with matched-pair taxi trip data and results of a previous taxi user survey. We also...

Innovative Mobility Carsharing Outlook – Winter 2016

Susan Shaheen, PhD and Adam Cohen
2016

As of October 2014, carsharing was operating in 33 countries, five continents, and an estimated 1,531 cities with approximately 4.8 million members sharing over 104,000 vehicles. Europe, the largest carsharing region measured by membership, accounts for 46% of worldwide membership and 56% of global fleets deployed. The world’s second largest carsharing market, North America, accounts for 34% of worldwide members and 23% of vehicle fleets. In 2014, Mexico maintained the highest member-vehicle ratios (131:1), followed by 107:1 in Italy.

Shared Mobility: Current Practices and Guiding Principles

Susan Shaheen, PhD and Adam Cohen
2016

This primer provides an introduction and background to shared mobility; discusses the government’s role; reviews success stories; examines challenges, lessons learned, and proposed solutions; and concludes with guiding principles for public agencies. The primer provides an overview of current practices in this emerging field, and it also looks toward the future in the evolution and development of shared mobility.