Shared Mobility

'I'm Back to Riding My Own Bike.' Higher Prices Threaten Silicon Valley’s Mobility Revolution

August 9, 2019
Alana Semuels

Red bike with brand label "JUMP"

When JUMP’s bright red bikes started appearing on the streets of San Francisco last year, Ian Chesal was relieved. His lengthy commute, from the hills of Oakland to his tech company’s San Francisco office, involved driving to the subway, sitting for 40 minutes, and then walking a mile to his office. Once the JUMP bikes appeared, he could use his phone to unlock one outside his subway stop, and ride it...

SAE International Publishes Set of Definitions for Shared Mobility Terms

October 3, 2018
SAE International

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
Lily Maxwell

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
Emma Jacobs

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
Meghan McCarty Carino

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
Aidan Freeman

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...

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

August 7, 2023
Carla Delgado

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...

TSRC's Cohen, Martin Earn Spot Awards

June 5, 2023
UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies

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...

Shared Mobility in Low- and High-Income Regions

Susan Shaheen, Adam Cohen, Jacquelyn Broader
2023

Although shared and informal transport are not new concepts in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), a variety of economic, environmental, and social forces are contributing to the growth of shared mobility in LMICs around the world. Shared mobility—the shared use of a vehicle, motorcycle, autorickshaw, minibus, scooter, bicycle, or other travel mode—is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to have short-term access to a transportation mode. This paper documents key shared mobility and informal transport concepts, terms, and definitions around the world. The paper...

The Many Modes of Transportation

February 13, 2022
Viewpoints Radio

Screenshot of the many modes podcast

Susan Shaheen, the Transportation Sustainability Research Center Co-Director, talks with Viewpoints Radio about the United States' current infrastructure and what more needs to be done to promote greater citizen mobility with bikes, scooters, and other non-motor modes of transportation.

Listen to the full podcast...