The recent acquisitions of IGO CarSharing by Enterprise Holdings in May 2013 and Zipcar by the Avis Budget Group in January 2013 continues a trend of mergers and acquisitions in North American “classic” carsharing (or roundtrip, short-term vehicle access). This trend began in the early 2000s with the Flexcar acquisition of CarSharing Portland in 2001 and the merger of Zipcar and Flexcar in 2007. Mergers and acquisitions again became an industry hallmark with the Enterprise Holdings’ acquisition of PhillyCarShare in 2011 and their acquisition of Mint Cars On-Demand in 2012.
In October 2013, TSRC hosted the inaugural Shared-Use Mobility Summit in San Francisco, a two-day event facilitating a lively dialogue among mobility providers, policymakers, governmental agencies, non-profits, affiliated industries, technologists, academics, and other stakeholders on the current state of the practice, opportunities, and obstacles to market expansion in the fields of carsharing, public bikesharing, ridesharing, ondemand ride services, employer shuttles, and related sharing economy affiliates. Day One featured sessions on industry trends, success stories, the sharing...
Lisa Rayle, Susan Shaheen, PhD, Nelson Chan, Danielle Dai, and Robert Cervero
2014
The rapid growth of on-demand ride services such as uberX and Lyft, or “ridesourcing,” has prompted debate among policy makers and stakeholders. At present, ridesourcing’s usage and impacts are not well understood. Key questions include: how ridesourcing and traditional taxis compare with respect to trip types, customers, and locations served; whether ridesourcing complements or competes with public transit; and potential impacts on vehicle kilometers traveled. We address these questions using an intercept survey. In spring 2014, 380 complete surveys were collected from three...
On Sunday, January 11, 2015, Professor Susan Shaheen from the University of California, Berkeley and Jeffrey Chernick from RideAmigos led a one-day workshop on the present and future of shared-use mobility at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington, DC. The workshop featured speakers representing the various shared-use modes, other private sector representatives, and public sector officials, and many topics were discussed.
Some of the highlights included: the role of integrated mobile payment; the need to integrate shared ride services with paratransit to...
This primer provides an overview of current practices in this emerging field and looks toward the future in the evolution and development of smartphone applications for the transportation sector. The primer provides an introduction and overview smartphone applications (known as “apps”); discusses the background, evolution, and development of smartphone apps; reviews the types of smartphone applications promoting transportation efficiency and congestion reduction; discusses transportation apps and their impacts on traveler behavior; examines current challenges; and concludes with...
In the early ages of the mobile Internet, routing apps appeared as a viable tool for the few motorists equipped with an in-vehicle navigation system or an aftermarket navigation device. With market penetration increasing, and recent market consolidation, a few companies are now the sole providers of driving directions to the majority of the US population. Additionally, the emergence of large ridesourcing or transportation network companies (TNCs) totaling up to tens of thousands of registered drivers in single cities (all using the same routing app), there is further consolidation....
Alexandre Bayen, PhD, Teddy Forscher, and Susan Shaheen, PhD
2018
One of the major concerns for the technical implementation of a RUC is the ability to collect the mileage of motorists in a way that preserves and protects individual privacy. With the widespread use of connected devices/smartphones and the growth of connected vehicles and the existence of toll tag readers, it is possible to build and deploy architectures capable of computing advanced fee structures (based upon on mileage, road type, time of day, and speed, among other features) that respect motorist privacy. A possible architecture can rely on the use of virtual trip lines (VTLs) –...