Environment

Carsharing's Impact on Household Vehicle Holdings: Results from a North American Shared-Use Vehicle Survey

Martin, Elliot
Susan Shaheen
Lidicker, Jeffrey
2010

Carsharing has grown considerably in North America during the past decade and has flourished within metropolitan regions across the United States and Canada. The result has been a new transportation landscape, which offers urban residents an alternative to automobility without carownership. As carsharing has expanded, there has been a growing demand to understand its environmental impacts. This paper presents the results of a North American carsharing member survey (N = 6,281). The authors establish a “before-and-after” analytical design with a focus oncarsharing’s impacts on household...

Commercial Vehicle Parking in California: Exploratory Evaluation of the Problem and Solutions

Rodier, Caroline J., PhD
Susan Shaheen
Allen, Denise M.
Dix, Brenda
2010

California is home to major international ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Oakland, as well as the second largest border crossing between Mexico and the U.S. California’s highways are critical commercial links from these ports of entry to the nation and carry more commercial vehicle truck traffic than any other state in the U.S. Given the high volume of truck travel in California, it is not surprising that there is a serious shortage of truck parking in the state. This shortage negatively impacts economic productivity, roadway safety, air quality, and public health. This report begins...

Ridesharing in North America: Past, Present, and Future

Chan, Nelson D.
Susan Shaheen
2011

Since the late-1990s, numerous ridematching programs have integrated the Internet, mobile phones, and social networking into their services. Online ridematching systems are employing a range of new strategies to create “critical mass:” 1) regional and large employer partnerships, 2) financial incentives, 3) social networking to younger populations, and 4) real-time ridematching services that employ “smartphones” and automated ridematching software. Enhanced casual carpooling approaches, which focus on “meeting places,” are also being explored. Today, ridesharing represents approximately 8...

Greenhouse Gas Emission Impacts of Carsharing in North America

Martin, Elliot
Susan Shaheen
2011

This paper evaluates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impacts that result from individuals participating in carsharing organizations within North America. The authors conducted an online survey with members of major carsharing organizations and evaluated the change in annual household emissions (e.g., impact) of respondents that joined carsharing. The results show that a majority of households joining carsharing are increasing their emissions by gaining access to automobiles. However, individually, these increases are small. In contrast, the remaining households are decreasing their...

How Public Education on Ecodriving Can Reduce Both Fuel Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Martin, Elliot W.
Chan, Nelson D.
Susan Shaheen
2012

Ecodriving, the concept of changing driving behavior and vehicle maintenance to impact fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in existing vehicles, has gained recent prominence in North America. One ecodriving strategy involves public education through Internet-based information dissemination. This paper presents the results of a controlled stated-response study conducted from June to December 2010 with approximately 100 University of California, Berkeley faculty, staff, and students, assessing the effectiveness of static ecodriving web-based information. A comparison of the...

Exploring the Future of Integrated Transportation Systems in the United States from 2030 to 2050: Application of a Scenario Planning Tool

Susan Shaheen
Camel, Madonna
Lee, Kunik
2013

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have primarily focused on systems management. To further improve connectivity and safety in the future, ITS might embrace a more holistic planning approach. While the future of ITS remains an open question, its evolution is closely linked to how the world evolves on many dimensions, social, political, economic, legal, and environmental. In this paper, the authors present results from four expert workshops. These consisted of an initial steering committee workshop (February 2011), two expert scenario-planning workshops (June 2011), and a final...

Bikesharing across the Globe

Susan Shaheen
Guzman, Stacey
Zhang, Hua
2012

Concerns about global climate change, energy security, and unstable fuel prices have caused many decision makers and policy experts worldwideto closely examine the need for more sustainable transportation strategies. Sustainable strategies include clean fuels, vehicle technologies, transportation demand management, and integrated land use and transportation strategies (Shaheen and Lipman 2007). Bikesharing—the shared use of a bicycle fleet—is one mobility strategy that could help address many of these concerns. In recent years, interest in this evolving concept has spread across the globe...

Public Bikesharing and Modal Shift Behavior: A Comparative Study of Early Bikesharing Systems in North America

Susan Shaheen
Martin, Elliot, PhD
Cohen, Adam
2013

Public bikesharing—the shared use of a bicycle fleet by the public—is an innovative mobility strategy that has recently emerged in major North American cities. Bikesharing systems typically position bicycles throughout an urban environment, among a network of docking stations, for immediate access. This paper discusses the modal shift that results from individuals participating in four public bikesharing systems in North America. The authors conducted an online survey (n =10,661 total sample), between November 2011 and January 2012, with members of four major bikesharing organizations (...

Evaluating the Public Perception of a Feebate Policy in California through the Estimation and Cross-Validation of an Ordinal Regression Model

Martin, Elliot, PhD
Susan Shaheen
Lipman, Timothy
Camel, Madonna
2014

Understanding the roots of policy perception can be critical for informing the design and implementation of innovative public policies; Feebates is one such innovative policy and in the context of new vehicles can be designed to offer buyers a rebate for the purchase of low-emission vehicles and a fee for the purchase of high-emission vehicles; Because feebates is a policy that directly impacts the consumer, understanding the dynamics of public perception, support, and opposition is important; This study explores the public perception of a feebate policy within California and evaluates the...

Automated Vehicles, On-Demand Mobility and Environmental Impacts

Greenblatt, Jeffery
Susan Shaheen
2015

We review the history, current developments, projected future trends and environmental impacts of automated vehicles (AVs) and on-demand mobility, and explore potential synergies. Many automobile manufacturers and Google plan to release AVs between 2017 and 2020, with potential benefits including increased safety, more efficient road use, increased driver productivity and energy savings. Estimates of AV energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions range from an ~80 % or greater decrease to a threefold increase; however, we argue that net decreases are likely. On-demand mobility services...