Peer-To-Peer (P2P) Carsharing: Understanding Early Markets, Social Dynamics, and Behavioral Impacts

Shared mobility services have now become firmly integrated into urban transportation systems across the globe. Carsharing, bikesharing, ridesourcing or transportation network companies(TNCs), and other systems now offer urban travelers access to transportation services that had long been previously only possible through personal vehicle ownership. Carsharing is arguably the pioneer mode of the sharing economy, given it ushered in a new way of thinking and access to the private automobile in the 20thcentury.Since its North American inception in Montreal in 1994, carsharing has undergone several waves of innovation. With each innovation, carsharing has deployed new functionality, technology, and business models. One of the more prominent innovations in carsharing has been peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing, which enables individuals to leverage information technology to share their personal vehicles with others in their area. The P2P carsharing industry has gone through some evolution of its own since its initial establishment. In 2017, we estimated that there were over 2.9million individuals participating in P2P carsharing, making use of a combined shared fleet of over 131,336P2P vehicles across six operators in North America (Shaheen, Cohen, and Jaffe, 2018).