On the potential of carsharing to attract regular trips of private car and public transport users in metropolitan areas

Abstract

To discourage private car ownership and to solve the first/last mile problems when using public transport (PT), carsharing has been introduced in many cities across the world in recent years. One-way carsharing schemes are expected to improve convenience for users and promote the usage of PT by supplementing it. Previous literature has indicated that carsharing has the effect of reducing vehicle distances throughout the area and of converting some traffic to other modes. The effects have been, however, in many cases smaller than expected or at least hoped for. Carsharing is mostly used only for the occasional, irregular trip. This study contributes to the literature by developing a combined RP and SP survey in which our focus is on whether carsharing might be chosen on a regular basis. The survey is conducted among 852 respondents from Aichi prefecture, Japan, where a carsharing scheme is existing. We control for previous carsharing experience and model explicitly the scenario that carsharing is used in combination with PT. We quantify with integrated choice and latent variable models (ICLV) the importance of the perceived inconvenience of the transport situation, the time and cost of taking PT and costs associated with driving one’s private cars and the importance of having a carsharing experience. We also show that car drivers willing to give up their own car might be inclined to use carsharing as access to or egress from PT. Sensitivity analyses with respect to carsharing prices and vehicle availability indicate the overall limited market potential of carsharing in Japanese metropolitan areas unless drastic changes to the current transport systems occur.