Shared mobility offers mobility options (cars, bicycles, rideshare), typically guided by smart phone-enabled reservation systems, as an alternative or complement to individual vehicle,ownership.
Benefits & Problems Addressed
Affordable transportation: Car ownership & storage are expensive, particularly in large cities. For cities and developers, lower car ownership frees car storage space for more productive and desired uses.
Environmentally friendly options: Shared mobility offers low carbon (bicycles, electric options) transportation modes. Shared vehilces & rideshare also expand access to transit hubs.
Expanded menu of options: Travelers can quickly connect among the fastest and/or most reliable options. Younger and older travelers who cannot drive have expanded access.
Tips & Techniques
Vehicle sharing: Vehicles include cars via carsharing companies, peer-to-peer car sharing, bicycle & ebike sharing, and scooter sharing
Sharing & transit services: Transit is a form of shared-use mobility, and can expand service through private & private-public shuttle services, paratransit, & microtransit. Transit agencies can also include other shared use (ridehailing, bike share) in transportation demand management planning.
Ridesourcing: Ridesouring (also referred to as transportation network companies or TNCs, such as Lyft & Uber. or ridehailing) also includes traditional taxicab service. Ridesplitting is a variation where a driver picks up several passengers who split the fare (e.g., UberPOOL and Lyft Line).
Delivery & courier network services (CNS): CNS (or flexible goods delivery) provides for-hire delivery services for monetary compensation via an online application or platform to connect couriers using their personal vehicles, bicycles, or scooters to deliver goods & freight (e.g., food, packages).
Role of public sector: (1) Safety & Consumer Protection for fair, truthful advertised services & safety; (2) Taxation & fees structures, including public discussions on revenue loss & funding transportation infrastructure; (3) Insurance limits and requirements; (4) Parking and Access to Rights-of-Way, particulaly managing competition among modes for public curb space (with a focus on private businesses using spacefor pick up/drop off); (5) Signage & wayfinding rules, including signage & advertising of shared modes; (6) Multimodal integration to support connections, fare integration, discounts, data standardization, and open data; (7) Planning processes for localities and regions include multi-jurisdictional forecasting, funding allocation, budgets, land use and transportation plans and monitoring/maintenance; (8) Accessibility and equity for all potential riders across all neighborhoods,
Emerging best practices: (1) Consistent public & private sector standards and definitions across modes that guide public policy ; (2) Aligning metrics, modeling & methodologies with federal/state/local land use, economic development, hazard mitigation & transportation planning; (3) New modes of transit oriented development keyed to shared use hubs; (4) Seamless integration from users' perspective (e.g. bike racks on shared vehicles); (5) Accessibility for all segments & geographic areas; (6) Finetuning insurance for each mode, and in some cases, for various activities within a shared use mode; (7) Open data & privacy policies.
Trends: As sharing evolves, cities will be looking at new mode of land use & infrastucture keyed to car/bike/ride/shuttle share. Driverless shared cars & shuttles are expected to emerge as dominant modes.
Hot Buttons: Pushback from traditional public & private transportation providers, where for-hire regulations apply, driver background and insurance checks, shift from older models of fees/taxation on vehicles to new revenue generation models, helmet laws for bike share, compeition for sidewalk & curb space among all modes,
Resources
Shared Mobility: Current Practices and Guiding Principles: USDOT, Federal Highways Administration
Shared-Use Mobility Toolkit: Shared Use Mobility Center
Shared Mobility Resources: Innovative Mobility Research (IMR), based at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) at the University of California, Berkeley