Shared Mobility

Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstrations Independent Evaluations (IE)

TSRC and Booz Allen Hamilton are partnering to form the IE team for the MOD Sandbox Demonstrations (Task Order 1). The IE team is working to finalize the Evaluation Plans for each of the eleven (11) projects. So far, four (4) of the reports have been published, which can be found below:

BART Integrated Carpool to Transit Access Program Evaluation Cover Page...

Shared Mobility

Policy Brief: Pooling Passengers and Services

Teddy Forscher and Susan Shaheen, PhD
2018

In the past ten years, passenger and goods movement transportation systems have evolved rapidly. Shared mobility providers are filling gaps in service and creating new markets for delivery; vehicle fleets continue to electrify; and pooled services are increasing vehicle occupancy. The uptake of innovative pooled services, as well as automation, promise to continue the trend of transformative change. As the private sector continues to advance, there is a great need for institutional flexibility in managing and coordinating all users of transportation infrastructure, particularly on...

Policy Brief: Impacts of Shared Mobility, Pooling

Susan Shaheen, PhD and Adam Cohen
2018

Shared-ride services—transportation modes that allow riders to share a ride to a common destination—include various forms of ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling); ridesplitting and taxisplitting; and microtransit. With the proliferation of smartphones and mobile Internet, it has become more convenient to share rides. Shared-ride services are having a transformative impact on many global cities by increasing vehicle occupancy through smartphone apps.

Online and App-Based Carpooling in France: Analyzing Users and Practices—A Study of BlaBlaCar

Susan Shaheen, PhD
Adam Stocker
Marie Mundler
2017

This chapter examines the characteristics and practices of ridesharing users in France. In May 2013, the authors surveyed members of BlaBlaCar, the largest online and app-based carpooling service in France, to analyze the sociodemographic characteristics and usage patterns of the respondents. The survey results identify correlations between socio-demographic characteristics and usage elements. Notably, users with a lower income level are more inclined to be passengers, while higher income users employ carpooling mainly as drivers. Students are shown to be more frequent users as well...

The Benefits of Carpooling

Susan Shaheen, PhD
Adam Cohen
Alexandre Bayen, PhD
2018

Carpooling allows travelers to share a ride to a common destination and can include several forms of sharing a ride, such as casual carpooling and real-time carpooling. Because carpooling reduces the number of automobiles needed by travelers, it is often associated with numerous societal benefitsincluding: 1) reductions in energy consumption and emissions, 2) congestion mitigation, and 3) reduced parking infrastructure demand. In recent years, economic, environmental, and social forces coupled with technological innovations are encouraging shared and pooled services. Shared mobility is...

Casual Carpooling in the San Francisco Bay Area: Understanding User Characteristics, Behaviors, and Motivations

Susan Shaheen, PhD
Nelson Chan
Theresa Gaynor
2016

Casual carpooling is an informal form of commuter ridesharing operating in Washington, D.C.; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, California. In contrast to new forms of shared-use mobility, casual carpooling has been in existence for over 30 years and uses no information communication technology, and is entirely run informally by its users. Researchers have been fascinated by this phenomenon and have conducted studies in the past, but there remains a lack of up-to-date quantitative data. This study examines the motivations and behaviors of casual carpoolers in the San Francisco Bay Area to...

Shared ride services in North America: definitions, impacts, and the future of pooling

Susan Shaheen, Adam Cohen
2018

Shared ride services allow riders to share a ride to a common destination. They include ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling); ridesplitting (a pooled version of ridesourcing/transportation network companies); taxi sharing; and microtransit. In recent years, growth of Internet-enabled wireless technologies, global satellite systems, and cloud computing - coupled with data sharing – are causing people to increase their use of mobile applications to share a ride. Some shared ride services, such as carpooling and vanpooling, can provide transportation, infrastructure, environmental, and...

An Evaluation of Via Rideshare Service in West Sacramento: An Exploratory Analysis Through Surveys and Expert Interviews

Elliot Martin, Aqshems Nichols, Susan Shaheen
2019
The UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) conducted an evaluation for the City of West Sacramento of the pilot Via Rideshare System, which began providing rides to customers in May of 2018 and is currently in operation. This analysis presents the findings from surveys and expert interviews. Surveys were deployed to both users and non-users of the pilot service in order to assess the behavioral impacts of the system on users and to...

Innovative Mobility Carsharing Outlook – Spring 2018

Susan Shaheen, PhD, Adam Cohen, and Mark Jaffee
2018

As of October 2016, carsharing was operating in 46 countries and six continents, with an estimated 2,095 cities and approximately 15 million members sharing over 157,000 vehicles. Asia, the largest carsharing region measured by membership, accounts for 58% of worldwide membership and 43% of global fleets deployed. The world’s second largest carsharing market, Europe, accounts for 29% of worldwide members and 37% of vehicle fleets.