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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]

This study draws on respondents from Greater London within the 2016/17 wave (n = 2640) of Britain's Annual Survey of carsharing users, which we enrich with external data from the 2011 England and Wales Census and small-area income estimates. Focusing on round-trip carsharing users, we present multivariate analyses of frequency-of-usage of carsharing vehicles and impacts on annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Published attribute effects from other geographic and contextual circumstances are compiled and compared (where direct comparison is possible) with the specific attribute effects that we report in this paper. We demonstrate a statistically significant link between customer satisfaction with proximity of carsharing vehicles and VMT impacts. Car ownership (both current, and changes upon joining a carsharing service) is shown to have intuitive structural impacts. We find that frequent usage is associated ceteris paribus with increasing VMT after joining a carsharing service, and that subscribing to multiple types of carsharing is associated with frequent carsharing usage and a reduction in VMT. Interestingly, we did not find any significant effect of household income on either frequency-of-usage or VMT impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Evaluation of two vehicle allocation mechanisms in free-floating carsharing. • A stated-choice survey with two interactive uncertain attributes. • Risk preference for two uncertain attributes. • Factors correlating with respondents' preference for vehicle allocation mechanisms. Abstract Free-floating carsharing (FFCS) fleets are inherently volatile spatio-temporally, which presents both a logistical challenge for operators and a service reliability issue for customers. In this study we present a stated-choice survey to investigate the attractiveness to customers of two mechanisms for managing fleet volatility: Virtual Queuing (VQ) and Guaranteed Advance Reservation (GAR). We investigate socio-demographic features and "Big Five" personality traits that are associated ceteris paribus with choosing to use the existing FFCS service model, willingness-to-pay (WTP) for VQ and GAR, and risky-choice behaviour under the uncertainty of FFCS systems. Data (n = 289; 232 employed in analysis) are sourced from existing users of a FFCS service in London, UK. Within the survey context, we found that customers are on average not willing to pay for VQ (i.e. negative WTP), however have £0.54 per journey WTP for GAR, with low-frequency FFCS users and users scoring highly on the Big Five "Conscientiousness" dimension having larger WTP for GAR. When analysing the two dimensions of uncertainty, we found that respondents exhibit risk-seeking behaviour towards price and weaker and insignificant risk-aversion towards walking time. This pattern holds across the three standard model types of nonlinear risky-choice behaviour that we investigated. The results are intended to be useful both to policymakers and carsharing operators who are likely, as the industry matures, to seek mechanisms to differentiate their service offers to better serve individual market segments with distinctive characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are nearly two million subscribers to carsharing services worldwide. These services can provide large benefits both to users and the general public (e.g., through emissions reductions). There has not however previously existed a general framework for forecasting their market potential and impacts that is sensitive to the way that they re-structure the costs associated with personal car ownership. Techniques for predicting market scope and impacts ahead of field implementation are urgently required, both by entrepreneurs and the public sector, whose support, or at least acquiescence, is generally required. This paper draws on the Perceived Activity Set conceptual framework that was recently developed to address the methodological challenges posed by carsharing, and presents the first set of empirical findings from employing it to model carsharing. The empirical analysis makes uses of pooled data from the British National Travel Survey and a purpose-designed stated-choice survey. We investigate both the ‘round-trip’ and ‘point-to-point’ carsharing service models. The results suggest that the number of prospective subscribers to a point-to-point carsharing service in London is between three and four times as large as the comparable number for round-trip carsharing. The greatest reduction in overall vehicle-miles of travel – including both carsharing cars and private cars – was found from introducing round-trip carsharing across all of London. Survey respondents indicated they would use point-to-point carsharing for commuting journeys much more frequently than round-trip carsharing. Finally, point-to-point carsharing was found to be a substitute for public transport, whilst round-trip carsharing was found to be a complement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A new concept of accessibility is proposed and then applied empirically. [•] The perceived activity set is a person-specific notion of accessibility. [•] Empirical study of mobility resource holdings: cars, bicycles and season tickets. [•] The PAS concept can be used to forecast take-up of new mobility services such as car clubs [carsharing]. [•] The PAS-based technique is empirically tractable and flexible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]