Shared Mobility: Current Adoption, Use, and Potential Impacts on Travel Behavior

Shared mobility services have experienced significant growth in adoption since the introduction of Uber, a ride-hailing service, in 2010. Although business models to support the sharing of vehicles (e.g., carsharing) have been present in the United States for more than 15 years, their adoption has been somewhat limited to niche markets in dense, urban cities or college campuses. To date, carsharing has attracted over 1.5 million members in North America and close to 5 million globally (1). Conversely, new models of ‘shared mobility,’ are estimated to have grown to more than 250 million users within five years (2). The rapid adoption of these new mobility services poses significant challenges for transportation researchers, policymakers, and planners, as there is limited information and data about how these services may affect travel decisions and usage patterns. Given the long-range business, policy, and planning decisions that are required to support transportation infrastructure (including transit, roads, and vehicles), there is an urgent need to collect data on the adoption of these new services, and in particular, their potential impacts on travel choices. This paper presents findings from a comprehensive travel and residential survey deployed in seven major U.S. cities that included questions on the adoption and use of carsharing and ride-hailing services. The findings suggest that early adopters of ride-hailing services tend to be younger, more highly educated, have higher incomes, and are more likely to reside in dense urban areas. Although the authors find that ride-hailing adopters have lower levels of vehicle ownership than non-adopters, they are more likely to own a vehicle than core transit users. Given that ride-hailing services are relatively new, the majority of individuals report few changes in travel behavior. However, the authors do find preliminary evidence that these services support the disposal of a personal vehicle (9% of ride-hailing adopters reported having doing so) and a reduction in personal driving (26% of ride-hailing adopters). Reported changes in transit use by adopters are minimal; however, here the authors find early evidence that ride-hailing serves as a substitute for bus services, and may serve as a complement for commuter rail. While further research is needed, this study presents early findings on the potential impacts that emerging shared mobility services may have on travel behavior.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB40 Standing Committee on Transportation Demand Forecasting.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Clewlow, Regina
  • Mishra, Gouri Shankar
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cities; Demand responsive transportation; Demographics; Impacts; Mobility; Mode choice; Travel behavior; Travel surveys; Vehicle sharing
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01629531
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-05729
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 20 2017 9:23AM