A multi-faceted characterization of free-floating car sharing service usage

Abstract

During the last decade, car sharing systems appeared in many cities and gained popularity. The research community has analyzed their current utilization trends in different contexts, their growth perspectives, and their gradual shift towards more sustainable technologies. Through the large and heterogeneous amount of car sharing usage data that is now available, researchers have been able to gain new insights into these services. In this paper, we provide an extensive characterization of the Free-Floating Car Sharing (FFCS) service usage in 23 cities in Europe and North America over a 14-month period. From our data about FFCS services, we detail fleet size, operating area, and characteristics of the car bookings and rentals. We also identify temporal patterns that are peculiar to specific cities and countries. We further highlight urban zones with high attractiveness or with a high rental generation rate. Finally, we compare the systems relying on internal combustion engine cars with those based on electric vehicles in terms of various indicators, including the influence on car refueling. The results show that car utilization patterns are rather variable across cities with the highest per-car utilization rate in Madrid. The majority of the cities show negative or stable usage trends due to either the reduced appeal of the service or the presence of inefficiencies in the service provision. These data-driven insights may help system managers assess the provided services’ profitability and sustainability from multiple perspectives.