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Shared transport or shared mobility is a
transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
system where travelers share a
vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...
either simultaneously as a group (e.g. ride-sharing) or over time (e.g. carsharing or bike sharing) as personal rental, and in the process share the cost of the journey, thus creating a hybrid between private vehicle use and mass or
public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
. It is a transportation strategy that allows users to access transportation services on an as-needed basis. Shared mobility is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of transportation modes including
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
,
Bicycle-sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...
s,
ridesharing companies A ridesharing company (also known as a transportation network company, ride-hailing service; the vehicles are called app-taxis or e-taxis) is a company that, via websites and mobile apps, matches passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire th ...
,
carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...
s, and
microtransit Microtransit is a form of bus demand responsive transport vehicle for hire. This transit service offers a highly flexible routing and/or highly flexible scheduling of minibus vehicles shared with other passengers. Microtransit providers build ro ...
. Each shared mobility service has unique attributes that have a range of impacts on
travel behavior Travel behavior is the study of what people do over geography, and how people use transport. Questions studied The questions studied in travel behavior are broad, and are probed through activity and time-use research studies, and surveys of trave ...
,
the environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses t ...
, and the development of
cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and urban areas. Some impacts of shared mobility include enhanced transportation accessibility as well as reduced driving and decreased personal vehicle ownership.Shaheen, S., et al.
"Shared Mobility: Definitions, Industry Developments, and Early Understanding."
''Transportation Sustainability Research Center, Innovative Mobility Research''. July 2015.
Cohen, Adam and Susan Shaheen
“Planning for Shared Mobility.”
''Planning Advisory Service (PAS) 583, American Planning Association, Washington, D.C.''. July 2016.
Shared mobility programs often yield a variety of environmental, social, and transportation system benefits. These are primarily related to personal vehicle usage and ownership, and vehicle miles or kilometers traveled (VMT/VKT). Shared mobility networks also retain the potential to expand the reach of
public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
ation by addressed gaps in existing public transportation systems. They can also provide economic benefits to users in the form of cost savings in some cases. Shared transport systems include
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
(also called car clubs in the UK),
bicycle sharing A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...
(also known as PBS or public bicycle systems),
carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...
s and
vanpool Vanpools or Vanpooling is an element of the transit system that allow groups of people to share the ride similar to a carpool, but on a larger scale with concurrent savings in fuel and vehicle operating costs and thus usually a lower cost to the ...
s (aka ride-sharing or lift-sharing),
real-time ridesharing A ridesharing company (also known as a transportation network company, ride-hailing service; the vehicles are called app-taxis or e-taxis) is a company that, via websites and mobile apps, matches passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire tha ...
,
slugging Slugging, also known as casual carpooling, is the practice of forming ad hoc, informal carpools for purposes of commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. A driver picks up these non-paying passengers (known as ...
(casual carpooling), community buses and vans,
demand responsive transit Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service,
US National Trans ...
(DRT),
paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...
, a range of
taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
projects and even
hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Nomads hav ...
and its numerous variants. Shared transport is taking on increasing importance as a key strategy for reducing
greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs and Emission (electromagnetic radiation), emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse ...
and other
emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...
from the transport sector in the face of the global climate emergency by finding ways of getting more intensive use of vehicles on the road. Together with other emerging automotive technologies such as vehicle electrification, connected vehicles and autonomous driving, shared transports form a future mobility vision called Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric (CASE) Mobility. A somewhat different form of shared transport is the "
shared taxi Shared may refer to: * Sharing * Shared ancestry or Common descent * Shared care * Shared-cost service * Shared decision-making in medicine * Shared delusion, various meanings * Shared government * Shared intelligence or collective intellige ...
", a vehicle which follows a predetermined route and takes anybody waiting for it, more like a
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
than a
taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
.


History

Shared mobility is a subgroup of the larger
sharing economy In capitalism, the sharing economy is a socio-economic system built around the sharing of resources. It often involves a way of purchasing goods and services that differs from the traditional business model of companies hiring employees to produce ...
. The
sharing economy In capitalism, the sharing economy is a socio-economic system built around the sharing of resources. It often involves a way of purchasing goods and services that differs from the traditional business model of companies hiring employees to produce ...
is a term that encompasses a wide variety of services, usually involving the online transactions of goods or services as part of a
peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...
marketplace. Innovations in
social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
,
location-based service A location-based service (LBS) is a general term denoting software services which use geographic data and information to provide services or information to users. LBS can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, indoor object search, ent ...
s, and Internet technologies have enabled shared mobility to develop and expand rapidly. By improving efficiency, providing cost savings, and monetizing underused resources, shared mobility services have become widely used in many cities around the world. Although the proliferation of tech-enabled shared mobility has occurred mostly within the last decade, shared mobility services are not a new phenomenon. The first
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
program was established in 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland,“A brief history of carsharing.“
Portland Bureau of Transportation. 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
and the first bikesharing program began in 1965 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
applications and
location data Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also call ...
have increased the feasibility of shared transportation services, including
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
companies and
mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
-based
vehicle for hire A vehicle for hire is a vehicle providing private transport or shared transport for a fee, in which passengers are generally free to choose their points or approximate points of origin and destination, unlike public transport, and which they ...
companies.


Auto rickshaws

Auto rickshaws carry people and goods in many developing countries. Also known as a
three-wheeler A three-wheeler is a vehicle with three wheels. Some are motorized tricycles, which may be legally classed as motorcycles, while others are tricycles without a motor, some of which are human-powered vehicles and animal-powered vehicles. Overv ...
, Samosa, tempo, tuk-tuk, trishaw, auto, rickshaw, autorick, bajaj, rick,
tricycle A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) three-wheeled vehicle. Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for passenger transport) and freight trikes, ...
, mototaxi, baby taxi or lapa in popular parlance, they are motorized version of the traditional
pulled rickshaw A pulled rickshaw (from Japanese language, Japanese ) is a mode of human-powered transport by which a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two people. In recent times the use of human-powered rickshaws has been discouraged or ou ...
or
cycle rickshaw The cycle rickshaw is a small-scale local means of transport. It is a type of hatchback tricycle designed to carry passengers on a for-hire basis. It is also known by a variety of other names such as bike taxi, velotaxi, pedicab, bikecab ...
. They are an essential form of urban transport, both as
vehicles for hire A vehicle for hire is a vehicle providing private transport or shared transport for a fee, in which passengers are generally free to choose their points or approximate points of origin and destination, unlike public transport, and which they ...
and for private use, in many
developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
, and a form of novelty transport in many Eastern countries.


Bikesharing

Bicycle-sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...
s allow users to access and use a shared fleet of bicycles, typically located within a given spatial boundary. These systems are mostly concentrated in cities or other urban areas and bikes or stations are normally unattended and always accessible. This availability during most or all of the day makes bikesharing an on-demand mobility option. The first bikesharing system debuted in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
in 1965, under the name ‘White Bikes.’ The bicycles were left unlocked around the city to be used by anyone in need of transportation. Bikesharing systems have since exploded in popularity starting in the mid-2000s due to advances in
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
(IT) that have improved bikesharing communications and tracking.Shared Use Mobility Center
"What is Shared Mobility?"
''Shared-Used Mobility Center'' 2017.
As of April 2016, there were 99 U.S. cities with technology-enabled public bikesharing systems, with approximately 32,200 bikes and 3,400 stations.“The Bike-sharing World Map.“
Russell Meddin. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
Three major types of bikesharing systems have emerged: public bikesharing (docked and dockless/free floating), closed campus bikesharing and peer-to-peer (P2P) bikesharing.Shaheen, S. and M. Christensen. (2014)
“Shared-Use Mobility Summit: Retrospective of North America’s First Gathering on Shared-Use Mobility.”
Transportation Sustainability Research Center, June 2014.
Most bikesharing systems are public and allow anyone to access a bicycle for a fee, typically in daily, monthly or annual membership fees. Public bikesharing programs can be station-based (docked), or dockless (also known as free floating). Dockless systems are deployed within a
geo-fence A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. A geofence could be dynamically generated (as in a radius around a point location) or match a predefined set of boundaries (such as school zones or neighborhood boundaries). Th ...
d area. Dockless systems were first introduced in Germany in the early 2000s via the
Call a Bike __NOTOC__ Call a Bike is a dockless bike hire system run by Deutsche Bahn (DB) in several German cities. Developed in 1998 and in operation since 2000, Call a Bike uses a system of authentication codes to automatically lock and unlock bikes. Cov ...
program. Major bikesharing operators in North America include:
Motivate Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...
,
Social Bicycles Jump (stylized as JUMP) is a dockless Scooter-sharing system, scooter and electric bicycle bicycle-sharing system, sharing system operating in the United States, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Austra ...
,
Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
, ofo,
Mobike Mobike ( zh, s=摩拜单车, p=mó bài dān chē), also known as Meituanbike, founded by Beijing Mobike Technology Co., Ltd. ( zh, s=北京摩拜科技有限公司), is a fully station-less bicycle-sharing system headquartered in Beijing, China ...
, and
LimeBike Neutron Holdings, Inc., doing business under the name Lime, formerly LimeBike, is a transportation company based in San Francisco, California. It runs electric scooters, electric bikes and electric mopeds in various cities around the world. The ...
. E-bikesharing systems (or Pedlec) have also been growing in popularity, particularly in Europe. Social Bicycles began testing an e-bikesharing program, called
Jump Jumping is a form of locomotion or movement in which an organism or non-living (e.g., robotic) mechanical system propels itself through the air along a ballistic trajectory. Jump or Jumping also may refer to: Places * Jump, Kentucky or Jump S ...
, in San Francisco in Summer 2017. Studies have been conducted that analyze bikesharing impacts on modal shift.Shaheen,S. and E. Martin. “Unraveling the Modal Impacts of Bikesharing.” University of California Transportation Center. ACCESS Magazine 39. Fall 2015. A 2014 UC Berkeley study suggests that in larger cities, bikesharing programs remove riders from crowded or high-use bus transit systems. In smaller cities, bikesharing improves access from bus lines, filling in gaps in the public transit system. In addition, those living in larger cities report decreased rail usage as a result of increased cost savings and reduced travel times. The study also found that half of the bikesharing members surveyed reduced their personal vehicle usage due to bikesharing.Shaheen,S., E.Martin, and A. Cohen (2012b)
“Public Bikesharing in North America: Early Operator and User Understanding.”
Mineta Transportation Institute, Report 11-26.
Shaheen, S. E. Martin, A. Cohen, M. Pogodzinski (2014). "Public Bikesharing in North America During a Period of Rapid Expansion: Understanding Business Models, Industry Trends and User Impacts." '' Mineta Transportation Institute '', Report 12-29.Martin, Elliot and Susan Shaheen (2014). “Evaluating Public Transit Modal Shift Dynamics in Response to Bikesharing: A Tale of Two Cities,” Journal of Transportation Geography, No. 41, pp. 315–324. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2014.06.026.


Carsharing

Carsharing refers to a model of vehicle sharing where users access cars on an as-needed basis, and often pay by time of reservation or miles driven. As of January 2015, there were 23 carsharing operators in the U.S. amounting to over 1.1 million members and over 16,000 vehicles.Shaheen, S. and A. Cohen (2015)
"Innovative Mobility Carsharing Outlook."
''Transportation Sustainability Research Center.'' Summer 2015.
As of January 2017, there were 39 carsharing organizations in North America serving 1.9 million members with a collective fleet of 24,629 vehicles. (these numbers do not include P2P carsharing; they include roundtrip and one-way carsharing operations.).Susan Shaheen (2017). “Carsharing Trends and Research Highlights.”presented at May 31, 2017 U.S. EPA.


Roundtrip carsharing

Roundtrip carsharing is one of the earliest carsharing models, granting members access to a shared vehicle fleet. As the name suggests, roundtrip carsharing requires users to return to the same location where they accessed the vehicle. One of the largest North American-based roundtrip carsharing operators is
Zipcar Zipcar is an American car-sharing company and a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. Zipcar provides vehicle reservations to its members, billable by the minute, hour or day; members may have to pay a monthly or annual membership fee in addition to ...
, which operates more than 12,000 vehicles in urban areas on college campuses and at airports across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Belgium, Turkey and Taiwan.“Zipcar Overview.“
Zipcar. 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
There have been numerous studies that document behavioral changes associated with roundtrip carsharing programs. A 2004 study on
City CarShare City Carshare was a carsharing program that operated in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting in 2001. It rented vehicles by the hour. In November 2016, the company effectively ceased operations, when Getaround, a for-profit, carsharing company, t ...
in San Francisco, CA found that nearly 30% of members reduced car ownership by one of more cars; two-thirds of members reported that they opted not to purchase an additional vehicle.Cervero, R. and Y. Tsai (2004)
"City CarShare in San Francisco, California: Second-Year Travel Demand and Car Ownership Impacts."
'' Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.'' 1887, 117–127.
This reduced car ownership typically translates into reduced driving, and thus lowered
energy consumption Energy consumption is the amount of energy used. Biology In the body, energy consumption is part of energy homeostasis. It derived from food energy. Energy consumption in the body is a product of the basal metabolic rate and the physical activity ...
and
greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...
. Carsharing programs also affect usage patterns of other travel modes. A 2011 study by UC Berkeley researchers found that roundtrip carsharing has a mixed impact on public transit and non-motorized modal use, with the same proportion of respondents increasing and decreasing usage of these modes. The impact on carpooling and non-motorized transportation, however, was found to be positive. The same study documented a 27% to 43% reduction in vehicle miles traveled and a 34% to 41% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions among households due to roundtrip carsharing.Martin, E. and S. Shaheen (2011)
"The Impact of Carsharing on Public Transit and Non-Motorized Travel: An Exploration of North American Carsharing Survey Data."
''Energies'', 4, 2094–2114.
Shaheen, S. and Elliot Martin, "The Impact of Carsharing on Household Vehicle Ownership." University of California Transportation Center. ACCESS Magazine 38.. Spring 2011.


One-way carsharing

One-way carsharing varies from roundtrip carsharing in that it grants members more flexibility in pickup and dropoff location. In one-way carsharing—also known as point-to-point carsharing—members can access a vehicle at one location and end their trip in another location. As of September 2015, companies that offered one-way functionality in the U.S. include car2go,
GIG Gig or GIG may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Gig'' (Circle Jerks album) (1992) * ''Gig'' (Northern Pikes album) (1993) * ''The Gig'', a 1985 film written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy * GIG, a character in ''Hot Wheels AcceleRacers'' ...
,
ReachNow ReachNow was a carsharing service operated by BMW Group in Seattle, Portland, and Brooklyn. It launched in 2016 and it shut down its services in Seattle and Portland on July 17, 2019. It used a mobile app for car reservations and operated a fl ...
, Zipcar, and BlueIndy. As of January 2015, about 35% of North American carsharing fleets were one-way capable. A 2016 study of one-way carsharing operator, car2go, in five North American cities found that 2% to 5% of members sold a vehicle, and 7% to 10% postponed a vehicle purchase due to their carsharing membership. Moreover, estimated VMT impacts due to carsharing ranged from −6% to −16% per car2go household, and GHG emissions changed by −4% to −18%.Martin, E. and S. Shaheen (2016)
"The Impacts of Car2go on Vehicle Ownership, Modal Shift, Vehicle Miles Traveled, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: An Analysis of Five North American Cities"
''Transportation Sustainability Research Center''


Personal vehicle sharing (PVS) and P2P carsharing

Personal vehicle sharing (PVS) is a carsharing service model that allows short-term access to privately owned vehicles. P2P
carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...
, a subset of PVS, employs privately owned vehicles made available for shared usage by members of a P2P member base. P2P carsharing companies differ from other carsharing operators in that users provide the free-floating vehicle fleet using their personally owned vehicles. P2P carsharing operators in North America include
Getaround Getaround is an online car sharing or peer-to-peer carsharing service that connects drivers who need to reserve cars with car owners who share their cars in exchange for payment. As of 2019, the company was reported to have five million users and ...
and Turo (formerly RelayRides), and as of May 2015, there were eight active P2P operators in North America. One 2014 study found that the top three reasons for using P2P carsharing are convenience and availability, monetary savings, and expanded mobility options.Ballus, Ingrid, Susan Shaheen, Kelly Clonts, and David Weinzimmer (2014). “Peer-to-Peer Carsharing: Exploring Public Perception and Market Characteristics in the San Francisco Bay Area, California,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2416, pp. 27–36. Another study documented that personal vehicle sharing services can expand the geographic range of vehicle sharing services by renting underused autos and therefore lowering vehicle usage requirements. However, fear of sharing personal assets was cited as one of the primary barriers to the adoption of P2P sharing services.Shaheen, Susan, Mark Mallery, and Karla Kingsley (2012). “Personal Vehicle Sharing Services in North America.” Research in Transportation Business & Management, DOI: 10.10.16/j.rtbm.2012.04.005.


Ridesharing

Ridesharing services enable shared rides between drivers and passengers that have similar origins and destination pairings. Ridesharing includes both
vanpool Vanpools or Vanpooling is an element of the transit system that allow groups of people to share the ride similar to a carpool, but on a larger scale with concurrent savings in fuel and vehicle operating costs and thus usually a lower cost to the ...
ing and
carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...
ing. Vanpooling involves a grouping of between seven and 15 people traveling in a van, and carpooling refers to groups of less than seven people traveling together in one vehicle. Ridesharing is distinct from ridesourcing (or TNCs), like
Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
and
Lyft Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...
in that the driver typically decides trip origin, destination, and any deviations to accommodate one or more additional passengers. Drivers and riders have the same origin, destination, or potentially share multiple proximate destinations, with a common purpose of conserving resources, saving money, or saving time.“Why You Shouldn’t Call Uber and Lyft “Ride-Sharing.“
Washingtonian. 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
Driver earnings from ridesharing are regulated in the U.S. by the Internal Revenue Service, and as of January 2017, they were capped at 53.5 cents per mile for business travel by car.“2017 Standard Mileage Rates for Business, Medical and Moving.“
Internal Revenue Service. 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
Both technology-enabled ridesharing organizations and more informal ridesharing programs exist. Examples of technology-enabled ridesharing companies are
BlaBlaCar BlaBlaCar is a French online marketplace for carpooling. Its website and mobile apps connect drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the journey. The company does not own any vehicles; it is a bro ...
, Carma Carpool, Scoop, and Waze Carpool. These services usually require participants to join either through a membership, website, or mobile application. Potential drivers and riders can then post driving routes or preferred travel routes and the ridesharing service will connect riders with passengers that share similar origin destination pairings. More informal ad hoc ridesharing programs include
slugging Slugging, also known as casual carpooling, is the practice of forming ad hoc, informal carpools for purposes of commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. A driver picks up these non-paying passengers (known as ...
(also known as casual carpooling). Casual carpooling is an informal form of commuter ridesharing operating in Washington, D.C.; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, California.Chan, N. and S. Shaheen (2012)
“Ridesharing in North America: Past, Present, and Future.”
Transport Reviews, 32(1), 93–112.
Casual carpooling has been in existence for over 30 years, is entirely run informally by its users, and does not use a mobile application or information communication technology. In one study in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014, researchers interviewed, observed, and surveyed participants at multiple casual carpooling locations. The study found that motivations for casual carpooling participation include: convenience, time savings, and monetary savings, while environmental and community-based motivations ranked low. Casual carpooling is an efficient transportation option for these commuters, while environmental sustainability benefits are a positive byproduct. Seventy-five percent of casual carpool users were previously public transit riders, and over 10% formerly drove alone.Shaheen, Susan, Nelson Chan, and Teresa Gaynor (2016). “Casual Carpooling in the San Francisco Bay Area: Understanding Characteristics, Behaviors, and Motivations,” Transport Policy. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.transpol.2016.01.003. In the U.S., the
modal share A modal share (also called mode split, mode-share, or modal split) is the percentage of travelers using a particular type of transportation or number of trips using said type. In freight transportation, this may be measured in mass. Modal share i ...
of ridesharing has declined since the 1970s. In 1970, The U.S. Census found that about 20% of American workers commuted to work by carpool. The American Community Survey has found that the carpooling modal share has declined to around nine percent as of 2013, though it still remains the second most popular mode of travel in the U.S., next to driving alone.U.S. Census Bureau (2013)
“Sex of Workers By Means of Transportation to Work.”
American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table B08006, American FactFinder.


On-demand ride services

On-demand ride services include ridehailing, ridesplitting, and E-hail for taxis. They are services that provide rides on-demand, usually in passenger cars, for a fee.


On-demand vehicle for hire

"Transportation network company" is a regulatory classification coined by the
California Public Utilities Commission The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or PUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In additi ...
in 2013, and it has been subsequently used by other U.S. states to refer to services like Lyft and Uber. These include point-to-point on-demand rides, typically hailed, coordinated, and paid for via smartphone and from drivers using their own personal vehicles. Transportation experts have called these services "ridesourcing" or "ridehailing" to distinguish these services from ridesharing and to clarify that drivers do not share a destination with their passengers. Ridehailing companies have spread around the world and include: Uber, Lyft,
Ola Cabs Ola Cabs (stylized as OLΛ) is an Indian multinational ridesharing company, headquartered in Bangalore. It also operates in other business verticals including financial services and cloud kitchens. A variety of venture capitalists including ...
,
DiDi Didi may refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Didi" (song), a song by Khaled * Didi, the principal character in ''Didi's Comedy Show'', a German comedy television show * Didi Pickles, mother of Tommy and Dil in the cartoons ''Rugrats'' and ''All ...
, Grab,
Gett Gett, previously known as GetTaxi, is an Israeli B2B Ground Transportation Management (GTM) platform and marketplace, and B2C ride-hailing app headquartered in London, and owned by GT GetTaxi (UK) Limited Founded in 2010, Gett has raised mor ...
,
Cabify Cabify is a Spanish ridesharing company which provides vehicles for hire via its smartphone mobile app. Vehicles are driven by self-employed service providers. Operating in Spain and Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador ...
,
Careem Careem is a Dubai-based super app with operations in over 100 cities, covering 12 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions. The company, which was valued at over billion in 2018, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber ...
,
Easy Taxi Easy Taxi is a mobile app for taxi hailing available in 30 countries. The app allows users to book a taxi and track it in real time. The same iOS, Android (operating system), Android, or Windows Phone app can be used in all places in which the ...
, and Fasten, among others. As of August 2017, 2 million people drive for Uber every week. These companies have faced criticism for adversely impacting traffic congestion, the environment, and public safety. A study of ridehailing users in San Francisco in 2014 evaluated modal shifts due to ridehailing and found that, if ridehailing were unavailable, 39% of respondents would have taken a taxi and 33% would have used a form of public transit. Four percent entered a public transit station as their origin or destination, suggesting ridehailing may serve as a first-/last-mile trip to or from public transit in some cases.Rayle, L., Dai, D., Chan, N., Cervero, R., & Shaheen, S. (2016)
“Just a better taxi? A survey-based comparison of taxis, transit, and ridesourcing services in San Francisco.”
Transport Policy, 45, 168–178.
Another study of ridehailing users in Denver and Boulder, Colorado found that a third of respondents would have taken public transit, biked, or walked instead of using a ridehailing service. Another third would have driven in a personal vehicle, and 12% would not have made the trip. These city-specific differences suggest that travel behavior impacts due to these services could be dependent on location. Only New York City and San Francisco have studied the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) implications of ridehailing services. Both studies found that Uber and Lyft are increasing VMT, with the heaviest impacts seen in some of the busiest areas of each city. However, both of these studies do not take into consideration modal shift changes.


Ridesplitting

Ridesplitting involves splitting both a ride and fare in a vehicle with others traveling in the same general direction. These services allow dynamic matching and route variation in real time as passengers request pickups. The user cost of ridesplitting services is lower than the cost of regular ridesourcing services, since the riders are sharing one ride and splitting the associated costs. Yet, ridesplitting may lead to detour and inconvenience effects for the users. Ridesplitting services are generally only available as an option in cities with denser and more established ridesourcing markets. Ridesplitting is even less studied than ridesourcing, and therefore travel behavior impacts are not yet well understood.


E-Hail services

E-Hail services are a
mode of transport Mode of transport is a term used to distinguish between different ways of transportation or transporting people or goods. The different modes of transport are air, water, and land transport, which includes rails or railways, road and off-road t ...
ation by which taxis can be reserved via Internet or mobile phone applications maintained by either a third-party provider or the taxi company. Examples of e-Hail services include Curb, Flywheel, Arro,
Hailo Hailo was a British technology platform that matched taxi drivers and passengers through its mobile phone application. Founded in London in 2011, the Hailo taxi service was available in 16 cities (as of December 2013). By May 2013, Hailo had en ...
, and iTaxi. In response to competition from ridesourcing companies, e-Hail taxi services have experienced rapid growth. As of October 2014, 80% of San Francisco taxis reported using Flywheel, an e-Hail app. As of February 2015, Flywheel was active in six cities, and Curb was active in about 60 U.S. cities. Since they use taxis, e-Hail services charge local taxi rates and do not use demand-based pricing during periods of higher ride demand, as ridesourcing services often do.


Microtransit

Microtransit is a technology-enabled private transit service that often uses shuttles or vans and is characterized by flexible scheduling, flexible routing, or both. Current microtransit operators include Chariot (acquired by Ford in September 2016) and Via. Defunct operators include Bridj and Leap Transit. Two forms of microtransit have emerged, including fixed-route with fixed-schedule services and flexible-route with on-demand scheduling.
Chariot A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nbs ...
, which started in San Francisco and now operates in Austin, New York, and Seattle, functions similarly to public transit and runs 15-seater vans along pre-determined routes. Chariot determines new routes by “crowdsourcing” potential customer demand and then launching a new route once enough demand is indicated.
Via Via or VIA may refer to the following: Science and technology * MOS Technology 6522, Versatile Interface Adapter * ''Via'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Noctuidae * Via (electronics), a through-connection * VIA Technologies, a Taiwan ...
is an example of flexible route, on-demand microtransit and currently operates in New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago. In New York City, users request a ride using Via's app and a shared van will pick them up with other travelers heading in a similar direction. The service is dynamic, without static routes, and shifts routes based on expected traffic and rider demand. Via charges a fare of $5 to $7 per ride in New York City, depending on the method of booking. Both Chariot and Via conform to the IRS “transit pass” standard, allowing them to qualify for pre-tax commuter benefits. Microtransit services have also gained interest among some public transit operators, who see the technology as an opportunity to provide higher quality or more flexible public transit services to their users. In some instances, like the (now defunct)
RideKC RideKC is the brand for public transportation systems in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The RideKC brand was adopted in August 2014 by the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, operators of the KC Streetcar line then under construction in Kans ...
: Bridj pilot project in Kansas City, Missouri, public-private partnerships have been formed to provide microtransit services. The RideKC: Bridj pilot ultimately ceased operations as it failed to attract enough riders, with only nine percent of riders taking more than 10 trips. The lack of a targeted marketing campaign, relatively high vehicle ownership rates in Kansas City, and low existing public transit mode share in the city were possible reasons for the low ridership of the pilot project.Shaheen, Susan, Adam Stocker, Jessica Lazarus, and Abhinav Bhattacharyya (2016)
“RideKC: Bridj Pilot Evaluation: Impact, Operational, and Institutional Analysis.”
Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC), UC Berkeley.
Public-private microtransit partnerships have the potential to improve service and increase public transit ridership, but steps must be taken to appropriately evaluate demand for the service before launching.


Courier network services

Courier Network Services (CNS) provide delivery services of packages, food, and other items for compensation using their own transportation and are connected with shippers and customers through an online app or platform. In P2P delivery services, someone who signs up and is approved by the platform can use their own vehicle or bicycle to conduct a delivery. There are many business models within P2P delivery services.
Postmates Postmates is a food delivery service, founded in 2011, and acquired by Uber in 2020. It offers local delivery of restaurant-prepared meals and other goods. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. , Postmates operates in 2,940 U.S. c ...
couriers make deliveries using their own bicycles, scooters, or cars. They charge a delivery fee plus a service charge of nine percent of the value of the goods being delivered.
Instacart Instacart is an American company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada. The company offers its services via a website and mobile app. The service allows customers to order groceries from participatin ...
delivers groceries for a $4 to $10 fee, depending on how long the delivery takes to complete. The proliferation of these services, where couriers use their personally owned vehicles or bicycles, could reduce the need for delivery companies to maintain and own their own delivery fleet. Some CNS models that have emerged also incorporate on-demand ride services (e.g., TNCs) that deliver packages. CNS deliveries are either made in separate trips or in multiple-purpose trips that may also serve passengers simultaneously.
Sidecar A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''. ...
and
Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
have incorporated passenger,
food delivery Retail food delivery is a courier service in which a restaurant, store, or independent food-delivery company delivers food to a customer. An order is typically made either through a restaurant or grocer's website or mobile app, or through a food ...
, and
package delivery Package delivery or parcel delivery is the delivery of shipping containers, parcels, or high value mail as single shipments. The service is provided by most postal systems, express mail, private courier companies, and less than truckload shippi ...
services.


Scootersharing

Scootersharing is a recent application of the sharing economy within the transportation space. Scootersharing companies took inspiration from the fourth generation bikesharing strategy, but replaced bicycles with GPS-tracked electric scooters. These scooters are also “dockless”, and are dropped off and picked up from any location within an urban area. Due to the lower speed of scooters and their electric assistance, it is easier for commuters to use them and for companies to invest in a fleet of them. Many scootersharing companies have been founded in the past few years. This includes Bird, Lime, Bolt, Skip, Scoot Networks, and Spin. Because of its growing popularity, some cities have also looked to ban certain scootersharing companies, taking on similar strategies to ridesharing bans. In San Francisco, the city created a Powered Scooter Share Permit Program that limits the number of companies that could operate scooters, and the amount of scooters. Cities that enforced similar regulations cite how scooters are more commonly ridden on sidewalks instead of bike lanes and could injure pedestrians. Other reasons would also be the lack of these companies enforcing riders to wear safety gear such as helmets. Compared to the other forms of shared mobility, scootersharing can be more hyper-localized and can hypothetically better address the last mile problem. Because scootersharing does not have much market adoption right now because it is a new form of transportation, there are no academic studies that can effectively measure its impact. Overall, it provides urban mobility with fewer carbon emissions compared to automobiles. They take up less space than bikes, so they have potential to increase transit ridership to and from bus lines.


Enabling technology: smartphone apps

Smartphones represent one of the most important transportation innovations of the 21st century. A variety of factors are changing the way people think about mobility including: demographic shifts, advancements in geo-spatial routing and computing power, the use of cloud technologies, faster wireless networks capable of carrying greater bandwidth, congestion, and heightened awareness about the environment and climate change. Mobility consumers are increasingly using smartphone applications, dubbed “apps” for an array of transportation use cases. More people are starting their trips with smartphones to plan routes, seek departure information for the next bus or railcar, find a taxi via an e-Hail app, or source a private driver through services, such as Lyft or Uber. Some factors driving transportation app growth are time savings; financial savings; incentives; and gamification.


Future of shared mobility and automation

Self-driving car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...
s, in conjunction with shared mobility, have the potential to greatly increase the viability and user base of shared transportation services in the future. There has been great interest in the idea of shared automated vehicle (SAV) services in recent years. This interest is likely due to the highly publicized AV development space, as well as the popularity of ridesourcing services and the realization that operating cost per mile of mobility services may substantially decrease compared to current prices, with automation. Many experts, companies, public agencies, and universities are at the initial stages of exploring the potential impacts of SAVs.Stocker, Adam and Susan Shaheen (2017).
“Shared Automated Mobility: Early Exploration and Potential Impacts,”
Road Vehicle Automation 4. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. pp. 125–139.
A few pilots have launched involving ridesourcing services and automated vehicles. Uber began testing an AV service open to frequent customers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in September 2016.
Waymo Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google. Waymo opera ...
(formerly Google's Self-Driving Car Project) has been testing an autonomous vehicle ride service in Arizona. Also during September 2016 in Singapore,
nuTonomy NuTonomy (stylized as nuTonomy) was an MIT spin-off technology startup company that made software to build self-driving cars and autonomous mobile robots. The company was founded in 2013. In August 2016, it launched its robo-taxi service (pilot ...
and Grab partnered to offer a similar AV ridesourcing service in a business district called “One North.” These SAV services require an engineer to closely monitor the system at all times. There have also been several automated shuttle service pilots around the world, although all are in the initial testing phase and operate in a low-speed setting. Low-speed SAV shuttle companies include:
EasyMile EZ10 The EasyMile EZ10 is a battery-powered Vehicular automation, autonomous battery electric bus, electric bus designed and marketed by EasyMile. It seats up to six people and four more passengers may ride standing, or it can accommodate a wheelchair ...
,
Local Motors Local Motors was an American motor vehicle manufacturing company focused on low-volume manufacturing of open-source motor vehicle designs using multiple microfactories. It was founded in 2007 by John B. Rogers Jr and had headquarters in Phoenix ...
, Auro, and
Navya SAS Navya is a French company specialized in the design and construction of autonomous and electric vehicles. History In June 2014, Christophe Sapet, co-founder of the companies Infogrames and Infonie, joined the investment fund Robolution Capit ...
. The impact that SAV services may have on travel behavior, other transportation modes, the environment, and cities in general remains uncertain. As real-world deployment of SAVs has been extremely limited, most studies on the subject develop or modify existing models of travel behavior and include SAVs, with assumptions regarding their operations and vehicle types. Studies predict a modal shift away from private vehicle trips due to SAVs under certain sharing scenarios. The impact SAV services may have on VMT and congestion is uncertain as well, with some studies predicting that roadway capacity may be freed up due to more efficient operations and right-sizing of vehicles.


Shared transport modes

*
Real-time ridesharing A ridesharing company (also known as a transportation network company, ride-hailing service; the vehicles are called app-taxis or e-taxis) is a company that, via websites and mobile apps, matches passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire tha ...
*
Flexible carpooling Flexible carpooling is carpooling that is not arranged ahead of time, but instead makes use of designated meeting places. It seeks to replicate the informal " slug-lines" that form in Washington DC, Houston, and San Francisco, by establishing more ...
*
Green travel Sustainable transport refers to ways of transportation that are sustainability, sustainable in terms of their social and Environmental issue, environmental impacts. Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used ...
*
Hail and ride In public transport in the United Kingdom and Australia, hail and ride is boarding or alighting a mode of public transport by signalling the driver or conductor that one wishes to board or alight, rather than the more conventional system of using ...
*
High-occupancy vehicle lanes A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers, i ...
*
Hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Nomads hav ...
*
Slugging Slugging, also known as casual carpooling, is the practice of forming ad hoc, informal carpools for purposes of commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. A driver picks up these non-paying passengers (known as ...
*
The commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...
* Truck sharing * Vanpooling


Group travel

*
Carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...
ing (ride sharing) *
Demand responsive transport Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service,
US National Trans ...
*
Paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...
*
Share taxi Share may refer to: * Share, to make joint use of a resource (such as food, money, or space); see Sharing * Share (finance), a stock or other financial security (such as a mutual fund) * Share, Kwara, a town and LGA in Kwara State, Nigeria Share m ...


Rental travel

*
Bicycle-sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...
*
Carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...


Notes and references


External links


World Share/Transport ForumThe Commons: Open Society Sustainability Initiative

On the CommonsThe first World Share/Transport Forum convened in Kaohsiung in September 2010
{dead link, date=May 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes *
Avego Carma Technology Corporation is a real-time transportation technology company headquartered in Cork, Ireland. Its flagship product, Carma Carpooling, matches users with nearby commuters and enables them to share the cost of driving. Carma also ...
Public transport Private transport