Steering short-term demand for car-sharing: a mode choice and policy impact analysis by trip distance

Car-sharing could have substantial benefits. However, there is not enough evidence about if more people choosing car-sharing would reduce private car usage or public transport demand. This work aims to bring forward some insights by studying short-term car-sharing choice behavior. A mode choice analysis is conducted first followed by a simulation analysis to evaluate modal substitution pattern. Policy implications are obtained in terms of the possible measures that could effectively bring down private car usage. The case study is Taiyuan-China; stated and revealed preference data are collected. Mixed nested logit models are developed to study the pooled SP/RP data. The analysis is conducted separately for a shorter trip case (2–5 km) and a longer trip case (more than 5 km) to examine if results would differ by distance. It is found that raising the cost of private car usage (travel cost, parking cost) should be prioritized for shorter trips since car is more difficult to be substituted when trip distance increases. Shorter trips also need such direct measures to help suppress the demand for private car when promoting a car-sharing service; otherwise car-sharing would attract more bus users instead. Longer trips need a more effective solution to bring down private car usage and that is discovered as making car-sharing service more appealing so that it can serve as a practical substitute to private car. A number of informative indicators (e.g. willingness to pay for travel time savings, direct and cross point elasticity) are also derived to enrich the findings.