Car sharing and socio-spatial justice: evidences from three Italian cities

Abstract

Car sharing is often celebrated as a new opportunity for a more sustainable mobility. One of its potential social benefits is the possibility for low-income, carless households to gain or maintain vehicle access without bearing the full costs of car ownership. However, poor attention has so far been paid to the effective potential of car sharing to improve the mobility options for disadvantaged people. In this paper a socio-spatial-justice approach is adopted to verify this potential in three Italian cities (Rome, Milan and Turin), where private transport plays a key role in mobility choices of citizens. The results reveal that car sharing increases accessibility levels for everybody in absolute terms, but in relative terms the spatial availability of this service is greater for car-owning households than for carless ones. A few speculations are proposed to explain these results, with reference to spatial strategies adopted by car-sharing operators.