Shared Mobility

Shared Ride Services in North America: Definitions, Impacts, and the Future of Pooling

Shaheen, Susan
Cohen, Adam
2018

Shared ride services allow riders to share a ride to a common destination. They include ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling); ridesplitting (a pooled version of ridesourcing/transportation network companies); taxi sharing; and microtransit. In recent years, growth of Internet-enabled wireless technologies, global satellite systems, and cloud computing - coupled with data sharing – are causing people to increase their use of mobile applications to share a ride. Some shared ride services, such as carpooling and vanpooling, can provide transportation, infrastructure, environmental...

“Three Ps in a MOD:” Role for Mobility on Demand (MOD) Public-Private Partnerships in Public Transit Provision

Lucken, Emma
Trapenberg Frick, Karen
Shaheen, Susan
2019

The growing number of public transportation agencies partnering with Mobility on Demand (MOD) or Mobility as a Service (MaaS) companies raises the question of what role MOD companies can, should, and currently play in the provision of public transport. In this article, we develop a typology reflecting 62 MOD public-private partnerships (MOD PPPs) in the United States and present lessons learned. We conducted 34 interviews with representatives from four MOD companies and 27 public agencies. The interviews spanned October 2017 to April 2018. The resulting MOD PPP typology consists of four...

Carsharing's Impact and Future

Shaheen, Susan
Cohen, Adam
Farrar, Emily
2019

Carsharing provides members access to a fleet of autos for short-term use throughout the day, reducing the need for one or more personal vehicles. This chapter reviews key terms and definitions for carsharing, common carsharing business models, and existing impact studies. Next, the chapter discusses the commodification and aggregation of mobility services and the role of Mobility on Demand (MOD) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) on carsharing. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of how the convergence of electrification and automation is changing carsharing, leading to shared...

North American Carsharing: A Ten Year Retrospective

Shaheen, Susan A.
Cohen, Adam P.
Chung, Melissa S.
2009

Carsharing organizations (or short-term auto use) provide members access to a fleet of shared vehicles on an hourly basis, reducing the need for private vehicle ownership. This paper reflects a ten-year retrospective of carsharing in Canada and the United States (U.S.), including resultsfrom a 2008 operator survey. Since 1994, a total of 50 carsharing programs have been deployed in North America33 are operational, and 17 are defunct. As of July 1, 2008, there were 14 active programs in Canada and 19 in the U.S., with approximately 319,000 carsharing memberssharing over 7,500 vehicles in...

Carsharing and Station Cars in Asia: Overview of Japan and Singapore

Barth, Matthew
Shaheen, Susan A.
Fukuda, Tuenjai
Fukuda, Atsushi
2006

In recent years there has been significant worldwide activity in shared-use vehicle systems (i.e., carsharing and station cars). Much of this activity is taking place in Europe and North America; however, there has also been significant activity in Asia, primarily in Japan and Singapore. This paper examines the latest shared-use vehicle system activities in both of these countries, beginning with an historical review followed by an evaluation of their current systems. Overall there are several well-established systems in both Japan (approximately 18 systems, 150 vehicles, 3000 members) and...

Can Sharing Economy Platforms Increase Social Equity for Vulnerable Populations in Disaster Response and Relief? A Case Study of the 2017 and 2018 California Wildfires

Wong, Steven D.
Broader, Jacquelyn C.
Shaheen, Susan A.
2020

Ensuring social equity in evacuations and disasters remains a critical challenge for many emergency management and transportation agencies. Recent sharing economy advances – including transportation network companies (TNCs, also known as ridehailing and ridesourcing), carsharing, and homesharing – may supplement public resources and ensure more equitable evacuations. To explore the social equity implications of the sharing economy in disasters, we conducted four focus groups (n=37) of vulnerable populations impacted by California wildfires in 2017 or 2018. To structure these data, we...

Trust and Compassion in Willingness to Share Mobility and Sheltering Resources in Evacuations: A case Study of the 2017 and 2018 California Wildfires

Wong, Steven D.
Walker, Joan L.
Shaheen, Susan A.
2020

Advances in the sharing economy – such as transportation network companies (e.g., Lyft, Uber) and home sharing (e.g., Airbnb) – have coincided with the increasing need for evacuation resources. While peer-to-peer sharing under normal circumstances often suffers from trust barriers, disaster literature indicates that trust and compassion often increase following disasters, improving recovery efforts. We hypothesize that trust and compassion could trigger willingness to share transportation and sheltering resources during an evacuation.To test this hypothesis, we distributed a survey to...

Chapter 13 - Sharing Strategies: Carsharing, Shared Micromobility (Bikesharing and Scooter Sharing), Transportation Network Companies, Microtransit, and other Innovative Mobility Modes

Shaheen, Susan
Cohen, Adam
Chan, Nelson
Bansal, Apaar
2019

Shared mobility—the shared use of a vehicle, bicycle, or other mode—is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to gain short-term access to transportation modes on an “as-needed” basis. It includes various forms of carsharing, bikesharing, scooter sharing, ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling), transportation network companies (TNCs), and microtransit. Included in this ecosystem are smartphone “apps” that aggregate and optimize these mobility options, as well as “courier network services” that provide last mile package and food delivery. This chapter describes different...

Policy Considerations for Carsharing and Station Cars: Monitoring Growth, Trends, and Overall Impacts

Shaheen, Susan A.
Schwartz, Andrew
Wipyewski, Kamill
2004

Since the late-1990s, over 25 U.S. shared-use vehicle programs—including carsharing and station cars—have been launched. Given their presumed social and environmental benefits, the majority of these programs received some governmental support—primarily in the form of startup grants and subsidized parking. As of July 2003, there were a total of 15 shared-use vehicle programs, including 11 carsharing organizations, two carsharing research pilots, and two station car programs. Over the last five years, U.S. carsharing membership has experienced exponential growth.Despite this expansion, the...

Bikesharing across the Globe

Shaheen, Susan
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...