Car Sharing Dynamics and Urban Mobility
Summary
Car sharing encompasses a spectrum of short-term vehicle access models that disentangle mobility from ownership, promoting more efficient use of urban transport resources. These schemes range from roundtrip and one-way operator-managed fleets to peer-to-peer platforms that broker privately owned vehicles. By offering flexible, on-demand access, car sharing reshapes travel behaviour, often reducing private car ownership and parking demand while encouraging multimodal journeys that integrate public transit, cycling and walking. Fleet electrification and strategic station siting further enhance environmental benefits, although non-transport rebound effects can attenuate net carbon savings. Rapid digitalisation enables dynamic pricing, real-time availability and data-driven network optimisation, while governance challenges include regulatory alignment, equitable access and integration within wider mobility-as-a-service frameworks. Overall, car sharing represents a pivotal component of sustainable urban mobility strategies, linking land use, transport demand management and emergent mobility technologies to deliver resilient, low-emission cities.
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Car Sharing Dynamics and Urban Mobility publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in car sharing dynamics and urban mobility across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Peer-to-peer car sharing: A model in which privately owned vehicles are rented to users via a digital platform, with the operator acting as broker.
Business-to-consumer car sharing: An operator-owned and managed fleet available to individual users on an on-demand basis, either roundtrip or one-way.
Rebound effect: Secondary increases in consumption that partially or wholly offset the direct resource or energy savings of an intervention.
One-way car sharing: A service allowing vehicles to be picked up at one location and returned to another, enhancing flexibility but requiring complex logistical management.
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT): A framework that models technology adoption based on constructs such as performance expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions.
References
- Economic impacts, carbon footprint and rebound effects of car sharing: Scenario analysis assessing business-to-consumer and peer-to-peer car sharing. Sustainable Production and Consumption (2023).
- User acceptance of electric car-sharing services: The case of the Netherlands. Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice (2021).
- The Impact of Carsharing on Public Transit and Non-Motorized Travel: An Exploration of North American Carsharing Survey Data. Energies (2011).
- An Overview of Shared Mobility. Sustainability (2018).
- The Sustainability of Shared Mobility in London: The Dilemma for Governance. Sustainability (2018).
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