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Market Potential for Carsharing Services
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Market Potential for Carsharing Services

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 May 2024 | Viewed by 11144

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Lucia Rotaris

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economic, Business, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Interests: transport demand analysis; transport policy evaluation and nonmarket valuation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to submit a paper to our Special Issue entitled “Market Potential for Carsharing Services” in Sustainability, which is indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and has an impact factor of 3.9.

Transportation is a critical factor for the economic, social, and cultural development of a country. However, on the one hand, the negative externalities caused by private transport, including environmental damages, morbidity and mortality caused by air and noise pollution, congestion, and accidents, are getting out of control, especially in dense large cities. On the other hand, the cost of subsidizing public transport services has proven to be too high to be sustainable. New mobility systems have to be implemented in order to meet an increasing transport demand, and car sharing (CS) has proven to be a viable solution. Different CS business models are now providing many types of service, effectively substituting private vehicles and complementing public transport services. Several issues, however, are still unexplored or not adequately studied. We are missing an accurate analysis of the mobility needs that CS can satisfy, not only in large cities but also in less-densely populated areas. The impact that disruptive innovations such as automated vehicles, MAAS platforms, and two-sided markets will produce on the demand and supply of CS services are largely unknown. The financial sustainability of the business models currently existing has rarely been explored. Finally, the potential of transport policies in support of CS and their social costs and benefits have not been estimated yet.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to shed light on these topics by adopting an interdisciplinary approach that embraces not only the economic, but also the social and engineering perspective.

Prof. Dr. Lucia Rotaris
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mobility needs met by CS
  • role of CS in less densely inhabited areas
  • peer-to-peer CS: how, where, and why it works
  • mobility as a service and CS: synergies and constraints
  • electric vehicles and CS: a successful story with some risks
  • automated vehicles and CS: an opportunity or a threat?
  • types of business models providing CS
  • financial sustainability of CS providers
  • strategic pricing and price differentiation in CS sector
  • transport policies supporting CS: goals, means, administrative boundaries, constraints
  • cost–benefit analysis of policies supporting CS

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 876 KiB  
Article
Will Customers’ Understanding of the Trolley Dilemma Hinder Their Adoption of Robotaxi?
by Susan (Sixue) Jia and Jiaying Ding
Sustainability 2024, 16(7), 2977; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su16072977 - 03 Apr 2024
Viewed by 445
Abstract
Robotaxi, coined from “robot” and “taxi”, refers to a taxi service with vehicles controlled by self-driving algorithms instead of human drivers. Despite the availability of such a service, it is yet unknown whether customers will adopt robotaxi, given its immaturity. Meanwhile, the potential [...] Read more.
Robotaxi, coined from “robot” and “taxi”, refers to a taxi service with vehicles controlled by self-driving algorithms instead of human drivers. Despite the availability of such a service, it is yet unknown whether customers will adopt robotaxi, given its immaturity. Meanwhile, the potential customers of the robotaxi service are facing an inescapable ethics issue, the “trolley dilemma”, which might have a strong impact on their adoption of the service. Based on the necessity of understanding robotaxi adoption, especially from an ethical point of view, this study aims to uncover and quantify the antecedents of robotaxi adoption, taking the trolley dilemma into consideration. We applied a modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to explore the antecedents of robotaxi adoption, with a special focus on customers’ understanding of the trolley dilemma. We conducted online surveys (N = 299) to obtain the customers’ opinions regarding robotaxis. Aside from measuring standard variables in UTAUT, we developed four proprietary items to measure trolley dilemma relevance. We also randomly assigned the participants to two groups, either group A or group B. Participants in group A are told that all robotaxis are programmed with a utilitarian algorithm, such that when facing a trolley dilemma, the robotaxi will conditionally compromise the passenger(s) to save a significantly larger group of pedestrians. In the meantime, participants in group B are informed that all robotaxis are programmed with an egocentric algorithm, such that when facing a trolley dilemma, the robotaxi will always prioritize the safety of the passenger(s). Our findings suggest that both performance expectancy and effort expectancy have a positive influence on robotaxi adoption intention. As for the trolley dilemma, customers regard it as of high relevance to robotaxis. Moreover, if the robotaxi is programmed with an egocentric algorithm, the customers are significantly more willing to adopt the service. Our paper contributes to both adoption studies and ethics studies. We add to UTAUT two new constructs, namely trolley dilemma relevance and trolley dilemma algorithm, which can be generalized to adapt to other new technologies involving ethics issues. We also directly ask customers to assess the relevance and algorithm of the trolley dilemma, which is a meaningful supplement to existing ethics studies that mostly debate from researchers’ perspectives. Meanwhile, our paper is managerially meaningful as it provides solid suggestions for robotaxi companies’ marketing campaigns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Market Potential for Carsharing Services)
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16 pages, 2777 KiB  
Article
Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Bike-Sharing: A Literature Review
by Lucia Rotaris, Mario Intini and Alessandro Gardelli
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 13741; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142113741 - 24 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1990
Abstract
Bike-sharing is recognized as a fast and efficient transport solution in cities, with zero emissions, convenience, speed of movement for short distances and beneficial effects on users’ health. In recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, its use has been rather heterogeneous across [...] Read more.
Bike-sharing is recognized as a fast and efficient transport solution in cities, with zero emissions, convenience, speed of movement for short distances and beneficial effects on users’ health. In recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, its use has been rather heterogeneous across countries and significant differences have emerged from empirical studies. However, there has been no systematic review of the empirical studies focused on the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the use of bike-sharing. This article aims to review all of the papers that have been published on this topic since the outbreak of the pandemic. In this analysis, we consider several elements, such as the impacts of the pandemic on actual and potential ridership, on the demand for bike-sharing compared to other public transport means, and on commuting and non-commuting trips. We also focus on the factors that have had an impact on the change in bike-sharing usage and the related policy and operational implications that have emerged from the literature. Finally, we highlight the gaps in the literature that require further investigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Market Potential for Carsharing Services)
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22 pages, 2844 KiB  
Article
Modeling and Analysis of Optimal Strategies for Leveraging Ride-Sourcing Services in Hurricane Evacuation
by Ding Wang, Kaan Ozbay and Zilin Bian
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4444; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13084444 - 15 Apr 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2156
Abstract
In many large-scale evacuations, public agencies often have limited resources to evacuate all citizens, especially vulnerable populations such as the elderly and disabled people, and the demand for additional transportation means for evacuation can be high. The recent development of ride-sourcing companies can [...] Read more.
In many large-scale evacuations, public agencies often have limited resources to evacuate all citizens, especially vulnerable populations such as the elderly and disabled people, and the demand for additional transportation means for evacuation can be high. The recent development of ride-sourcing companies can be leveraged in evacuations as an additional and important resource in future evacuation planning. In contrast to public transit, the availability of ride-sourcing drivers is highly dependent on the price, since surge pricing will occur when the demand is high and the supply is low. The key challenge is thus to find the balance between evacuation demand and driver supply. Based on the two-sided market theory, we propose mathematical modeling and analysis strategies that can help balance demand and supply through a pricing mechanism designed for ride-sourcing services in evacuation. A subsidy is considered in the model such that lower-income and vulnerable individuals could benefit from ride-sourcing services. A hypothetical hurricane evacuation scenario in New York City in the case study showed the feasibility of the proposed method and the applicability of subsidies for ride-sourcing services in evacuation. The methodology and results given in this research can provide useful insights for modeling on-demand ride-sourcing for future evacuation planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Market Potential for Carsharing Services)
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18 pages, 2101 KiB  
Article
Carsharing Services in Italy: Trends and Innovations
by Lucia Rotaris
Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 771; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13020771 - 14 Jan 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2474
Abstract
Transport is a critical factor for social-economic development, however, its environmental footprint cannot be neglected and is increasing over time. New mobility services based on collaborative consumption, such as peer-to-peer carsharing, have been developed with the aim of improving accessibility and reducing the [...] Read more.
Transport is a critical factor for social-economic development, however, its environmental footprint cannot be neglected and is increasing over time. New mobility services based on collaborative consumption, such as peer-to-peer carsharing, have been developed with the aim of improving accessibility and reducing the negative externalities produced by transport. However, in the literature, there are very few documents that analyze collaborative consumption in the transport sector. To shed light on this topic, we described the Italian carsharing market and explained how it has changed over time. Moreover, we studied the potentialities of peer-to-peer carsharing in a less densely populated Italian region on the basis of a survey we conducted through face-to-face interviews. We found that the main reason preventing its spread is that individuals are not yet aware of its existence. We also analyzed the motivations of those who would like to use it and of those who stated the opposite. Suggestions are presented on the strategies to be implemented to facilitate the adoption of the service for the benefit of both platform providers and local administrators. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Market Potential for Carsharing Services)
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23 pages, 7183 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Pricing on Round-Trip Carsharing Services: Travel Behavior and Equity Impact Analysis through an Agent-Based Simulation
by Giulio Giorgione, Francesco Ciari and Francesco Viti
Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6727; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12176727 - 19 Aug 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3023
Abstract
Carsharing companies can customize their service by adopting different pricing schemes and offers with the goal of increasing service attractivity, fleet usage and profits. Dynamic pricing strategies can be designed to adjust and balance cars’ availability temporally and spatially; they may pose some [...] Read more.
Carsharing companies can customize their service by adopting different pricing schemes and offers with the goal of increasing service attractivity, fleet usage and profits. Dynamic pricing strategies can be designed to adjust and balance cars’ availability temporally and spatially; they may pose some questions regarding customer equity, since such measures could impact their activities and mode choice. In this paper, we develop an experimental design for conducting an explorative analysis of how availability-based and time-based dynamic pricing schemes impact demand and supply performances. The strategy is simulated in the open-source agent-based software MATSim and compared to a fixed pricing policy scheme. Two spatial distributions of the value of time for the population of Berlin are applied (radially and coaxially) to systematically analyze agents’ behavior response to these pricing policies. Results confirm that when dynamic pricing is applied people with low value of time tend to abandon the carsharing mode in favor of other modes of transportation. Overall, the strategy applied in this study appears to be unfair, since it hinders low income groups from using the carsharing service. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Market Potential for Carsharing Services)
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