The future of public transport in the era of sharing economy: the view of transport operators

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the new landscape that is being formed for urban public transport in the new age of the sharing economy. In this paper, the evolution of shared mobility systems is examined through a literature review and the way that this trend is shaping the landscape of urban public transportation. Moreover, through a questionnaire survey amongst public transportation experts, the megatrends that are formed among public transport operators are examined, i.e., in which way they will respond to the new reality, e.g., will they take a competing or a collaborative stance, and how the modal split will be affected? Twenty-two (22) public transport experts from all over the world participated in the survey. It was found that carsharing and autonomous vehicles will positively affect the demand for urban public transport. Nevertheless, it was found that autonomous cars without carsharing will not have the desired results on demand for urban public transport, a finding that is crucial! Moreover, the experts seem to be very positive about public transport operators offering carsharing and autonomous vehicle services by their own means. The results were analyzed with the use of independent samples t-test and ANOVA.