Economics and Finance

Ridesharing (Carpooling and Vanpooling)

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Cohen, Adam
Randolph, Michael
Farrar, Emily
Davis, Richard
Nichols, Aqshems
2019

Ridesharing allows travelers to share a ride to a common destination and can include several forms (Shaheen & Cohen, 2019; Chan & Shaheen, 2011; SAE International, 2018). Ridesharing differs from for-hire vehicle services (i.e., transportation network companies (TNCs), ridesourcing, and ridehailing) in its financial motivation. When a ridesharing payment is collected, it partially covers the driver’s cost and is not intended to result in financial gain. Additionally, the driver has a common origin and/or destination with the passengers. In this toolkit, readers will find a summary...

Exploring Electric Vehicle Carsharing As A Mobility Option for Older Adults: A Case Study of A Senior Adult Community in The San Francisco Bay Area

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Cano, Lauren
Camel, Madonna
2015

By the year 2030, 57 million people will be over the age of 65 in the United States. Baby Boomers drive approximately 17% more than other age groups and are active well past retirement. This paper examines electric vehicle (EV) carsharing (short-term vehicle access) as a future alternative to vehicle ownership for older adults living on fixed incomes in a gated community to provide reduced cost mobility and eliminate vehicle maintenance hassles. The authors conducted a study of the response to the EV carsharing concept in a senior community in Northern California, between Winter 2009 and...

Advanced Air Mobility: Opportunities, Challenges, and Research needsfor the State of California (2023-2030)

Cohen, Adam
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2024

Advanced air mobility (AAM) is a broad concept that enables consumers access to air mobility, goods delivery, and emergency services through an integrated and connected multimodal transportation network. AAM can provide short-range urban, suburban, and rural flights of about 50-miles and mid-range regional flights up to a several hundred miles. State law delegates responsibility for oversight in aviation primarily to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). This white paper presents an overview of the state of the market, such as the aircraft under development and forecast...

Shared Micromoblity Policy Toolkit: Docked and Dockless Bike and Scooter Sharing

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Cohen, Adam
2019

Shared Micromobility – the shared use of a bicycle, scooter, or other low-speed mode – is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to have short-term access to a mode of transportation on an as-needed basis. Shared micromobility includes various service models and transportation modes that meet the diverse needs of travelers, such as station-based bikesharing (a bicycle picked-up from and returned to any station or kiosk) and dockless bikesharing and scooter sharing (a bicycle or scooter picked up and returned to any location). Early documented impacts of shared...

Behavioral and Sociodemographic Impacts of Carsharing

Shaheen, Susan A.
Pan, Alexandra
2024

The growth of carsharing in North America since the service was first introduced in 1994 has had notable impacts on travel behaviour, including vehicle ownership and modal shift. Existing forms of carsharing (e.g., roundtrip, one-way, and peer-to-peer) alter the conventional cost structure of driving from one of fixed cost to variable cost. Multiple studies have shown that overall, carsharing users increase public transit and non-motorized modal use, with some users also selling their vehicle or postponing future vehicle purchases as a result of being a carsharing member. These modal...

Carsharing and Personal Vehicle Services: Worldwide Market Developments and Emerging Trends

Shaheen, Susan A., PhD
Cohen, Adam
2012

Carsharing (or short-term auto use) provides a flexible alternative that meets diverse transportation needs across the globe, while reducing the negative impacts of private vehicle ownership. More than 65 years ago, carsharing began appearing in Europe. It has expanded to approximately 1,100 cities worldwide, in 26 nations on five continents. This article provides a global perspective of carsharing growth and future developments from 2006 through 2015, employing data from three surveys conducted in 2006, 2008, and 2010. The authors explore the interview findings of 25 carsharing experts...

Transit-Based Smart Parking: An Evaluation of the San Francisco Bay Area Field Test

Rodier, Caroline J.
Shaheen, Susan A.
2010

This paper presents an evaluation of the first transit-based smart parking project in the US at the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District station in Oakland, California. The paper begins with a review of the smart parking literature; next the smart parking field test is described including its capital, operational, and maintenance costs; and finally the results of the participant survey analysis are presented. Some key user response results are: (1) most participants used the smart parking system 1–3 days a month for commute travel and (2) 37% of respondents had seen the...

Vehicle Electrification in Carsharing and Transportation Network Company (TNC) Fleets: Current and Future Trends

Shaheen, Susan
Farrar, Emily
2022

This chapter focuses on two shared mobility modes — carsharing and transportation network companies (TNCs, also known as ridesourcing and ride-hailing) — and how they can incorporate electric vehicles (EVs) into their fleets. Shared mobility is the shared use of a vehicle, scooter, bicycle, or other travel mode; it provides users with short-term access to a travel mode on an as-needed basis. Carsharing (e.g., Zipcar, car2go) offers members access to vehicles by joining an organization that provides and maintains a fleet of cars and/or light trucks. Vehicles may be located throughout a city...