An Overview of Shared Mobility

Abstract

In a wider understanding, shared mobility can be defined as trip alternatives that aim to maximize the utilization of the mobility resources that a society can pragmatically afford, disconnecting their usage from ownership. Then, shared mobility is the short-term access to shared vehicles according to the user’s needs and convenience. The contributions and added value of this paper are to provide an up-to-date and well-structured review on the area of shared mobility to researchers and practitioners of the transport sector. Hence, this paper presents a bibliographical review of shared mobility and its diverse modalities, as an alternative to individual transportation, especially in cases of individual automobiles or short trips restricted to an urban city. The present literature review on shared modes of transportation has discovered that the introduction of these modes alone will not solve transportation problems in large cities, with elevated and growing motorization rates. However, it can among the strategies employed to help alleviate the problems caused by traffic jams and pollution by reducing the number of vehicles in circulation, congestions, and the urban emission of polluting gases. Thus, the implementation of shared mobility schemes offers the potential to enhance the efficiency, competitiveness, social equity, and quality of life in cities. This paper covers the fundamental aspects of vehicle and/or ride sharing in urban centers, and provides an overview of current shared mobility systems.