Travel behaviour of shared mobility users: a review of empirical evidence

Abstract

ABSTRACT In recent decades, shared mobility has gained prominence as a sustainable alternative in transport, yet a comprehensive understanding of its effects on travel behaviour remains limited. This paper provides a narrative review of quantitative empirical studies, focusing on car-sharing and bike-sharing, and revisits the magnitude of the effects on four indicators: public transport use, active transport use, auto dependence, and auto ownership. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives are considered, examining variances in trip characteristics. Shared mobility users tend to rely less on private vehicles and increase cycling, with varying effects on transit use and walking. Car-sharing typically replaces private vehicles for non-commuting trips, while bike-sharing mainly competes with rather than complements public transport, especially for shorter commutes. The longitudinal effects of shared mobility appear more limited than those observed in cross-sectional analyses, indicating that shared mobility can potentially lead to a positive trend in travel mode shifts over time, albeit slowly. Additionally, this study highlights differences in shared mobility outcomes between Australia and other global contexts, exploring potential reasons for these discrepancies. Integrating shared mobility and other transport paradigms requires long-term strategies to shape travel behaviour towards multimodality, offering a continuum of choices covering most daily trips without private vehicles.