Search

Abstract Free-floating carsharing is a rapidly growing urban mobility service. It has emerged at commercial scale more recently than traditional 'round-trip' carsharing, and at present its growth trajectory is steeper. The evidence base regarding its impacts on sustainable transport indicators is, however, less well-developed. This issue is topical for a variety of reasons, including the importance of public policy to the success of this form of carsharing. The research objective of this study is to establish the early-stage impact of free-floating carsharing on private car ownership. We report findings from a point in time three months following the initiation of a free-floating carsharing service in London (UK). We investigate characteristics of FFCS users that are associated with having one's car ownership impacted, as well as the distinction between deterrence of increased car ownership and sale/disposal of a previously owned private car. We find that 37% (n =347; 95% confidence interval:±5%) of users indicate that free-floating carsharing has impacted their ownership of private cars. Of this 37%, a large majority (83%) indicated that the mechanism of impact was that they decided not to buy a car that they otherwise would have purchased. 11% reported that they had disposed of a car in the past three months, and 6% stated that they will sell a private car within the next three months. The average income and education level of users are both higher than for the general population. Within the population of service-users, multivariate analysis demonstrates that, net of confounding effects, heavier (more-frequent) service-users are more likely to indicate impacts on car ownership, and that being highly-educated and higher-income than other users were both (independently) associated with maintaining one's car ownership level. Additional findings are presented that relate car ownership impacts to further demographic characteristics as well as behavioural indicators. Our findings should be interpreted to pertain to the 'early adopter' cohort of FFCS users, and as free-floating carsharing services mature and grow further research will be needed to ascertain how user characteristics, behaviour and impacts are evolving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One-way carsharing systems are increasingly-prevalent in urban areas, though little is known about their impacts on activity-travel behavior, particularly their effects on usage of motorized and non-motorized travel. Such systems require privileged access to publicly-controlled street space, and in order to prepare suitably for negotiations regarding the price and terms of such access, transport planners require techniques to analyze their usage and impacts. In contrast to previous methods, this study employs activity/mobility behavior as the quantity under study rather than aggregate travel distance. A stated-response method is presented to predict the impacts of one-way carsharing. The survey instrument is based on needs-based theory, in which multiple activity episodes undertaken in service of a broader personal objective are analyzed as a pattern of linked behavior. Food shopping was the activity type employed in the empirical analysis. Substantive findings relating to the impacts of one-way carsharing are discussed, as well as limitations imposed by the survey protocol and limited sample size (n=72). It was found that non-car-owning respondents within our sample would use one-way carsharing to allow them to shop for food less frequently, would visit fewer distinct food shops, and would spend less time traveling for food shopping purposes. Instrument effects specific to this method are also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]