Shared Mobility: An Overview of Definitions, Current Practices, and Its Relationship to Mobility on Demand and Mobility as a Service

Shared mobility—the shared use of a vehicle, bicycle, or other travel mode—is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to have short-term access to a transportation mode on an as-needed basis. Shared mobility encompasses a variety of innovative and emerging passenger and last-mile delivery modes, such as bikesharing; carsharing; courier network services (CNS); for-hire services (e.g., taxis and transportation network companies (TNCs), also known as ridesourcing and ridehailing); microtransit; ridesharing (carpooling/vanpooling); scooter sharing; and urban air mobility (UAM). This chapter provides a summary and definitions of shared mobility services, discusses common shared mobility business models, and reviews the role of smartphone applications. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the commodification of shared mobility services, including the growth of mobility on demand (MOD) and mobility as a service (MaaS) and similarities and differences between existing US and European definitions of MOD and MaaS.