The author of this piece is today intensely involved in the second stage of her professional interest in carsharing. Starting several years ago, she began to look into as part of her doctoral research in transportation studies at an American university. Several years later, here she is as entrepreneur and manager behind an ambitious carsharing project. This is a report on the first months of their experience and goals for the future.
Car-sharing platforms, which have suffered during the Covid-19 lockdown, see an opportunity emerging: an increase in short-distance, local trips as U.S. consumers look for a different way of getting to work and running errands.
Based on the authors’ experience and knowledge of technical developments, several important factors for implementing carsharing in the future are recommended. The authors emphasize how carsharing organizations (CSOs) can be incorporated into multimodal mobility services by adopting new business strategies and advanced technologies. The authors identify exemplary CSOs that have already taken strides towards developing their organizations into intermodal mobility service providers.
In recent years, shared-use vehicle systems have garnered a great deal of interest and activity internationally as an innovative mobility solution. In general, shared-use vehicle systems consist of a fleet of vehicles that are used by several different individuals throughout the day. Shared-use vehicles offer the convenience of a private automobile and more flexibility than public transportation alone.
The automobile accounts for more than 95 percent of all person miles traveled in the United States, whereas transit accounts for less than three percent of all trips. Between the private automobile and traditional transit, niche markets exist for other transportation services, such as airport and transit feeder shuttles and carsharing.
Susan Shaheen, PhD, Daniel Sperling, and Conrad Wagner
1999
Most cars carry one person and are used for less than one hour per day. A more economically rational approach would be to use vehicles more intensively. Carsharing, in which a group of people pay a subscription plus a per-use fee, is one means of doing so. Carsharing may be organized through affinity groups, large employers, transit operators, neighborhood groups, or large carsharing businesses.
Susan Shaheen, PhD, John Wright, and Daniel Sperling
2002
To reduce transportation emissions and energy consumption, policy makers typically employ one of two approaches-changing technology or changing behavior. These strategies include demand management tools, such as ridesharing and vehicle control technologies that involve cleaner fuels and fuel economy. Despite the benefits of a combined policy approach, these strategies are normally employed separately. Nevertheless, they have been linked occasionally, for instance in the electric station car programs of the 1990s.
Susan Shaheen, PhD, Daniel Sperling, and Conrad Wagner
1999
Updating a prior carsharing publication, this paper provides an extensive background to the international history of carsharing up to 1999, highlighting the reasons for which some organizations flourished and others faltered. Experiences of worldwide carsharing organizations (CSOs) are used to assess which factors are favorable to attaining innovative and economically viable operations and other organizational goals. The future prospects of international CSOs are explored based on trends in services offered, partnership management, and advanced technologies.
Susan Shaheen, PhD, Daniel Sperling, and Conrad Wagner
1998
Most automobiles carry one person and are used for less than one hour per day. A more economically rational approach would be to use vehicles more intensively. Carsharing, in which people pay a subscription plus a per-use fee, is one means of doing so. Carsharing may be organized through affinity groups, large employers, transit operators, neighborhood groups, or large carsharing businesses.
Susan Shaheen, PhD, Mollyanne Meyn, Kamill Wipyewski
2003
Shared-use vehicle services provide members access to a vehicle fleet for use on an as-needed basis, without the hassles and costs of individual auto ownership. From June 2001 to July 2002, the authors surveyed 18 U.S. shared-use vehicle organizations on a range of topics, including organizational size, partnerships, pricing, costs, and technology. While survey findings demonstrate a decline in the number of organizational starts in the last year, operational launches into new cities, membership, and fleet size continue to increase.
