Modeling free-floating car-sharing use in Switzerland: A spatial regression and conditional logit approach

Abstract

Free-floating car-sharing has been one of the latest innovations in the car-sharing market. It allows its customers to locate available vehicles via a smartphone app and reserve them for a short time prior to their rental. Because it is available for point-to-point trips, free-floating car-sharing is not only an alternative to private cars, but also to public transportation. Using spatial regression and conditional logit analysis of original transaction data of a free-floating car-sharing scheme in Switzerland, this research shows that free-floating car-sharing is mainly used for discretionary trips, for which only substantially inferior public transportation alternatives are available. In contrast to station-based car-sharing, it does not rely on high-quality local public transportation access, but bridges gaps in the existing public transportation network.