Berkeley TSRC study quantifies VMT and GHG benefits of car2go car-sharing in North America

. . . Now, a study conducted by the University of California Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) concludes that car2go’s carsharing model can complement existing mass transit options; reduces the overall number of vehicles on the road; and ultimately improves mobility in densely-populated urban areas.

Among the study’s conclusions were that, on balance, car2go changes VMT (vehicle miles travelled) by -6% to -16% per car2go household; GHG emissions change by -4% to -18% per car2go household. Overall, the results of this study suggest that car2go one-way carsharing is substantively impacting travel behavior, miles driven, GHG emissions, and the number of vehicles on urban roads within operating regions.

The UC Berkeley study is the first-ever multi-city study to focus on one-way carsharing rather than the traditional round-trip car-sharing model. . . .

Findings included:

• Car2go members were found to have sold between 1 to 3 vehicles for every car2go vehicle. 74% of the vehicles reported sold by car2go members were at least ten years old, helping to remove thousands of vehicles with outdated emission systems from urban roads. The average age of vehicles reported sold was 14.4 years old.
  
  Each car2go vehicle was found to suppress between 4 to 9 vehicles. Taking sales of older vehicles and avoided (suppressed) purchases together, each car2go vehicle replaced between 7 to 11 privately owned vehicles across the five cities studied—reducing vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and the overall number of cars in urban cores.
  
  Based on car2go NA’s fleet and membership size in 2015, the presence of car2go in the five cities studied was estimated to have taken more than 28,000 cars off of city roads, reducing traffic and parking congestion. . . .

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