The Future and Sustainability of Carpooling Practices. An Identification of Research Challenges

Abstract

This article proposes several new research directions regarding the future and sustainability of carpooling practices. The reflection is based on a systematic review of the literature (2010–2021) and a consideration of some of the main recent changes in carpooling, such as carpooling platforms and apps, and changes in lifestyles that may affect carpooling practices, such as telework. Carpooling is defined here as the sharing of short- or long-distance car rides between people who are not members of the same household, for a trip (or part of a trip) already scheduled by the driver, free of charge or expense sharing. After a description of the corpus selection method used, followed by a brief review of existing literature, we propose three new avenues for research. The first avenue is a call for greater consideration of forms of transport, other than carpooling, to work (or to the place of study), which remain poorly studied. The second avenue proposes the investigation of the role that the current digitalisation of carpooling, namely online carpooling platforms and their integration into mobility platforms, and also the use of social media by carpoolers, could play in the coming years. The third avenue argues that the consequences of the rise of collaborative consumption and the current pandemic, namely teleworking practices and the perception of shared mobility, could have an effect on carpooling, which merits specific investigation.