Travel Effects of a Suburban Commuter Carsharing Service: CarLink Case Study
Abstract
Since 1998, carsharing organizations in the United States have experienced exponential membership growth, but to date there have been only a few evaluations of their effects on travel. Using the results of focus groups, interviews, and surveys, this paper examines the change in travel among members of CarLink–-a carsharing model in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, with explicit links to transit and suburban employment–-after approximately 1 year of participation. The demographic and attitudinal analyses of CarLink members indicated that the typical member (a) was more likely than an average Bay Area resident to be highly educated, in an upper income bracket, and professionally employed and (b) displayed sensitivity to congestion, willingness to try new experiences, and environmental concern. Some of the more important commuter travel effects of the CarLink programs included an increase in rail transit use by 23 percentage points in CarLink I and II; a reduction in driving without passengers by 44 and 23 percentage points in CarLink I and II, respectively; a reduction in average vehicle miles traveled by 23 mi in CarLink II and by 18 mi in CarLink I; an increase in travel time and a reduction in travel stress; a reduction in vehicle ownership by almost 6% in CarLink II; and reduced parking demand at participating train stations and among member businesses. The CarLink travel results are compared with those of neighborhood carsharing models in the United States and Europe.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
1. Cervero R. Paratransit in America. Praeger, Westport, Conn., 1997.
2. Shaheen S., Sperling D., and Wagner C. Carsharing in Europe and North America: Past, Present, and Future. Transportation Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3, 1998, pp. 35–52.
3. Katzev R. Car Sharing: A New Approach to Urban Transportation Problems. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2003.
4. Baum H., and Pesch S. Untersuchung der Eignung von Car-Sharing im Hinblick auf die Reduzierung von Stadtverkehrsproblemen (in German). Federal Ministry for Traffic, Bonn, Germany, 1994.
5. Harms S., and Truffer B. The Emergence of a Nation-wide Carsharing Co-operative in Switzerland. Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland, 1998.
6. Meijkamp R., and Theunissen R. Carsharing: Consumer Acceptance and Changes in Mobility Behavior. Delft University of Technology Report, Delft, Netherlands, 1996.
7. Katzev R. CarSharing Portland: Review and Analysis of Its First Year. Department of Environmental Quality, Portland, Ore., 1999.
8. Cooper G., Howes D., and Mye P. The Missing Link: An Evaluation of CarSharing Portland Inc. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Portland, Ore., 2000.
9. Cervero R., and Tsai Y. City Carshare in San Francisco, California: Second-Year Travel Demand and Car Ownership Impacts. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1887, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 117–127.
10. Nerenberg V., Bernard M. J. III, and Collins N. E. Evaluation Results of San Francisco Bay Area Station-Car Demonstration. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1666, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1999, pp. 110–117.
11. Shaheen S., Wright J., Dick D., and Novick L. CarLink—A Smart Car-sharing System Field Test Report. UCD-ITS-RR-00–4, University of California, Davis, Calif., 2000.
12. Shaheen S., and Wright J. The CarLink II Pilot Program: Testing a Commuter-Based Carsharing Model. In Proc., 2001 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2001, pp. 1067–1072.
13. Shaheen S. Dynamics in Behavioral Adaptation to a Transportation Innovation: A Case Study of CarLink—A Smart Carsharing System. UCD-ITS-RR-99–16, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, 1999.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published: January 2005
Issue published: January 2005
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 97
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 0
Crossref: 27
- Resourcing idle privately owned autonomous electric vehicles: System d...
- Understanding the illegal charging intention of electric micro-mobilit...
- An extended theory of planned behavior to explain the intention to use...
- Measuring sentiments and attitude of people toward self-drive rental c...
- Acceptance of free-floating car sharing: A decomposed self-efficacy-ba...
- Ridesharing as a Potential Sustainable Transportation Alternative in S...
- What travel scenarios are the opportunities of car sharing?
- The cost of sharing bikes and docks: Quantifying rent and work require...
- Shared Low-Speed Autonomous Vehicle System for Suburban Residential Ar...
- Challenges in credibly estimating the travel demand effects of mobilit...
- Early adopters of Mobility-as-a-Service in the Netherlands
- Examining the impact of car-sharing on private vehicle ownership
- La propensión al uso del coche compartido y sus bases decisionales. Re...
- Study on demand and characteristics of parking system in urban areas: ...
- Service Operations of Electric Vehicle Sharing Systems from the Perspe...
- To own or not to own? Car ownership and consumer awareness: Evidence f...
- To Share or Not? A Critical View on Personal Mobility
- Exploring Factors Affecting Car Sharing Use Intention in the Southeast...
- Carpooling and carsharing for commuting in the Paris region: A compreh...
- A System of Shared Autonomous Vehicles Combined with Park-And-Ride in ...
- What Kind of People Use Carsharing for Commuting? Case Study in Shangh...
- Computing and Visualizing Taxi Cab Dynamics as Proxies for Autonomous ...
- What drives corporate carsharing acceptance? A French case study
- Multimodality: Facets and Causes of Sustainable Mobility Behavior
- Carsharing as Key Contribution to Multimodal and Sustainable Mobility ...
- Who is Attracted to Carsharing?
- Carsharing and Station Cars in Asia: Overview of Japan and Singapore
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
