Title: Carsharing and the Built Environment: Geographic Information System-Based Study of One U.S. Operator
Publication Information: Transportation Research Record, 2009
Author(s): Tai Stillwater, Patricia Mokhtarian, Susan Shaheen
Document Date: May, 2009
Number of Pages: 8
Abstract:
A geographic information system–based multivariate regression study
of an urban U.S. carsharing operator compared the use of carsharing
vehicles for 16 months in 2006 and 2007 to built-environment and demographic
factors. Carsharing is a relatively new transportation industry in
which companies provide members with short-term vehicle access from
distributed neighborhood locations. The number of registered carsharing
members in North America has doubled every year or two to a current
level of approximately 320,000. Researchers have long supposed that
public transit access is a key factor driving demand for carsharing. The
results of the study, however, find an ambiguous relationship between
the activity at carsharing locations and public transit access. Light rail
availability is found to have a significant and positive relationship to
carsharing demand. Regional rail availability is found to be weakly and
negatively associated with carsharing demand, although limitations in
the available data make it impossible to ascribe the observed difference to
user demand, random variation, or other factors specific to the industry.
Keywords:
Carsharing, shared vehicle, GIS, land-use