City CarShare: First-Year Travel Demand Impacts

Abstract

Nine months into the introduction of car sharing in San Francisco, California, an estimated 7% of members' trips and more than 20% of vehicle miles traveled were by shared-use vehicles. Evidence suggests that access to shared cars is stimulating motorized travel. Most members do not own cars, and many appear to be leasing vehicles in lieu of walking and biking. Car-share vehicles are used more for personal business and social-recreational travel than for nondiscretionary, routine travel such as to work or school. Shared cars are generally not used during peak periods or to dense settings well served by transit, such as downtown. In this sense, car sharing appears to be stimulating a resourceful form of judicious automobility. Users are accruing substantial travel-time savings and willingly pay market prices for these benefits.