Shared Mobility

Online and App-Based Carpooling in France: Analyzing Users and Practices—A Study of BlaBlaCar

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Stocker, Adam
Mundler, Marie
2017

This chapter examines the characteristics and practices of ridesharing users in France. In May 2013, the authors surveyed members of BlaBlaCar, the largest online and app-based carpooling service in France, to analyze the sociodemographic characteristics and usage patterns of the respondents. The survey results identify correlations between socio-demographic characteristics and usage elements. Notably, users with a lower income level are more inclined to be passengers, while higher income users employ carpooling mainly as drivers. Students are shown to be more frequent users as well. These...

Understanding the Diffusion of Public Bikesharing Systems: Evidence from Europe and North America

Parkes, Stephen
Mardsen, Greg
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Cohen, Adam
2013

Since the mid-2000s, public bikesharing (also known as ‘‘bike hire’’) has developed and spread into a new form of mobility in cities across the globe. This paper presents an analysis of the recent increase in the number of public bikesharing systems. Bikesharing is the shared use of a bicycle fleet, which is accessible to the public and serves as a form of public transportation. The initial system designs were pioneered in Europe and, after a series of technological innovations, appear to have matured into a system experiencing widespread adoption. There are also signs that the policy of...

3rd Annual Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report

North American Bikeshare & Scooter Share Association (NABSA)
2021

NABSA is pleased to present our third annual Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report. In 2021, the industry continued to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with shared micromobility filling critical gaps in essential mobility. The industry continued to rebound and demonstrate tremendous resilience, with the number of systems growing past pre-pandemic levels. This report tracks that progress and the trends that are emerging in the industry. To inform this report, we have collected data across a wide variety of topics, including ridership metrics, user profiles, employment, equity,...

An Evaluation of Free-Floating Carsharing in Oakland, California

Martin, Elliot, PhD
Pan, Alexandra
Shaheen, Susan
2020

GIG Car Share is a free-floating carsharing system that began operations in the East Bay in April 2017. Similar to other free-floating carsharing systems, such as car2go and ReachNow (which later combined as ShareNow), members of GIG have access to a fleet of vehicles which they can book and unlock via an app. Once booking the vehicle, members can drive anywhere, but must park back in the home zone in order to terminate their session. The price of driving a GIG vehicle is charged per hour, per mile, or per day, and is calculated based on the lowest cost to the user. This report uses the...

Mobility on Demand Planning and Implementation: Current Practices, Innovations, and Emerging Mobility Futures

Shaheen, Susan
Cohen, Adam
Broader, Jacquelyn
Davis, Richard
Brown, Les
Neelakantan, Radha
Gopalakrishna, Deepak
2020

This report provides Mobility on Demand (MOD) planning and implementation practices and tools to support communities. The report discusses different stakeholders in the MOD ecosystem and the role of partnerships in filling spatial, temporal, and other service gaps. Additionally, the report discusses how MOD can be integrated into transportation planning and modeling. The report also discusses shared mobility implementation considerations, such as rights-of-way management, multimodal integration, data sharing, equity, labor impacts, and the role of pilot evaluations. Finally, the report...

Mobility on Demand: State of the Industry Practitioner Census, Fall 2021

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Cohen, Adam
Broader, Jacquelyn
2021

The Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) at the University of California, Berkeley is pleased to present the results of the Mobility on Demand (MOD) State of the Industry Practitioner Census. The global pandemic has led to a challenging period for the transportation sector. Nevertheless, the industry has shown resilience and innovation. This industry outlook provides information on MOD and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) developments throughout the United States (U.S.) and highlights some industry changes in response to the pandemic.

Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration: Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) OpenTripPlanner

Martin, Elliot
Nichols, Aqshems
Cohen, Adam
Shaheen, Susan
2021

This report documents the results of an independent evaluation of the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s (VTrans) OpenTripPlanner (OTP), called Go! Vermont, part of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration program. The project intended to serve as an alternative to other trip planners by including flexible transit options such as route deviation, dial-a-ride, and other demand-responsive alternatives and to analyze web traffic data to determine the level of user activity attracted by Go! Vermont since its launch. The evaluation compared the...

Strategies to Overcome Transportation Barriers for Rent Burdened Oakland Residents

Pan, Alexandra
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2021

Shared mobility is gaining traction in the transportation community as a potentially more environmentally friendly alternative to automobile travel and complement to public transit. However, adoption and use of shared mobility by low-income individuals lags behind other demographic groups. Additional research is needed to better understand the transportation needs of low-income travelers and how public agencies, community-based organizations, and shared mobility operators can work together to best serve those needs. This research fills gaps in understanding the potential policy strategies...

Creative Reallocation of Curbs, Streets, Sidewalks Accelerated by the Pandemic May be Here to Stay

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Cohen, Adam
Broader, Jacquelyn
2023

Curb space has been traditionally designed for private vehicle parking, public transit, and passenger and commercial loading. However, in recent years, a growing number of newservices and activities have increased the demand for limited curb space, including passenger pick-up and drop-off; last-mile delivery (e.g., courier network services, personal delivery devices); electric vehicle (EV) charging; micromobility parking and use (e.g., personally owned and shared bikes and scooters); and carsharing services. The curb serves a variety of functions such as vehicle and device storage (...

Generic Time- and Method-Interdependencies of Empirical Impact-Measurements: A Generalizable Model of Adaptation-Processes of Carsharing-Users' Mobility-Behavior Over Time

Firnkorn, Jörg
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2016

The purpose of this article is to advance empirical sustainability-evaluations of carsharing-systems. Carsharing, a frequently cited example of a product–service system (PSS), is currently morphing from a niche into a mainstream mode of transportation. Carsharing has the potential to provide a more sustainable mobility-option compared to private car usage, for example by reducing the overall motor-vehicle traffic in cities. However, the quantification of this potential is complex, and few studies have analyzed the fundamental impacts of the chosen measurement-methodology on the results of...