Shared Mobility: Current Practices & Guiding Principles
This is a good example of:Developing programs to integrate shared mobility programs into local mobility plans, policies & programs.
This primer introduces shared mobility, discusses the government’s role, reviews success stories, examines, lessons learned, & proposed solutions; and concludes with guiding principles.
Benefits & Problems Addressed
Emerging terminology & concepts: The guide simplifies the myriad terms and practices that comprise shared mobility.
Update on practices & trends: While shared mobility is not new, technology has accelerated trends not fully understood or incorporated into local transportation systems. This guide summarizes how cities have implemented (and iterated) programs with shared rides, vehicles & modes.
Benefits & solutions associated with shared mobility: Shared mobility typically reduces high impacts of individual car ownership: costs of ownership, congestion, need for parking, health impacts from sedentary travel.
Tips & Techniques
How to use the guide: Use the guide to (1) understand the history of shared use mobility & trends, (2) understand the universe of share mobility terms & practices; (3) refer to examples & case studies, (4) develop policy & programs with guiding principles.
Common terms for shared mobility:
Bikesharing: Users access bicycles for oneway (point-to-point) mobility and/or roundtrips. Bicycles can be dock-based or free-floating (returned anywhere in a predefined area). Peer-to-peer (P2P) apps allow bike owners to lend out bicycles for a fee.
Carsharing – temporary access (hourly/daily) to a vehicle typically via app-based membership program. Carsharing offers a fleet of parking space-base access or point-to-point (pick up & drop off anywhere in designated zone). P2P programs are where a car owner leases out their car to a user.
Ridesourcing: Ridesourcing companies (also known as transportation network companies (TNCs) and ride-hailing) provide pre-arranged & on-demand rides with drivers or a taxi service. With ridesplitting, several riders are picked up (in one spot or serially) and split the fare.
Alternative Transit Services: These services include shuttles (scheduled or on-demand), paratransit, and small private sector transit (or microtransit).
Courier Network Services (CNS): Also referred to as flexible goods delivery, these delivery services employ drivers (hired or personal vehicle/bike) to deliver ordered goods.
Other: Scooter and e-bike share are emerging.