CARSHARING IN THE UNITED STATES: EXAMINING MARKET POTENTIAL
The automobile is the dominant travel mode throughout the U.S., while transit accounts for less than four-percent of market share. Between these principal modes, niche markets exist for other transportation services, such as transit feeder shuttles and carsharing. Carsharing, in which individuals share a fleet of vehicles distributed at neighborhoods, employment sites, and/or transit stations, could potentially fill and expand one such niche; complement existing services; and develop into an economically viable transportation alternative. While most transit modes rely heavily upon governmental support, carsharing has the potential to become commercially sustainable. Nevertheless, carsharing is a relatively new development in the U.S. and will require more time to develop into a sustainable and widespread transportation alternative. This paper includes a brief discussion of carsharing history in Europe and an overview of U.S. carsharing developments. It also highlights CarLink-the first smart commuter-based carsharing program in the San Francisco Bay Area-to examine the market potential and viability of one U.S. shared-use vehicle model in greater detail. (For more information on CarLink go to www.gocarlink.com.) Finally, the author concludes this paper with a discussion of the complementary niche potential of carsharing to fill existing gaps between traditional transit and private vehicles.
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Supplemental Notes:
- Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
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Corporate Authors:
1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
Washington, DC United States 20036 -
Authors:
- Shaheen, S A
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Conference:
- 8th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems
- Location: Sydney, Australia
- Date: 2001-9-30 to 2001-10-4
- Publication Date: 2001
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: References; Tables;
- Pagination: 11p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Commuters; Highway travel; Market assessment; Vehicle fleets; Vehicle sharing
- Identifier Terms: CarLink
- Geographic Terms: Europe; San Francisco Bay Area; United States
- Subject Areas: Economics; Geotechnology; Highways; Passenger Transportation; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00961982
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Aug 26 2003 12:00AM