Exploring sustainable urban transportation: insights from shared mobility services and their environmental impact

Abstract

The transportation landscape is witnessing profound changes due to technological advancements, necessitating proactive policy responses to harness innovation and avert urban mobility disruption. The sharing economy has already transformed ridesharing, bicycle-sharing, and electric scooters, with shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) poised to reshape car ownership. This study pursues two objectives: firstly, to establish a market segmentation for shared ride services and secondly, to evaluate the environmental impact of ridesharing in different contexts. To mitigate potential biases linked to stated preference data, we analysed the navette service, utilized by a research institute in Europe, closely resembling future SAVs. The market segmentation relied on hierarchical cluster analysis using employee survey responses, while the environmental analysis was grounded in the 2019 navette service data. Our analysis revealed four unique employee clusters: Cluster 1, emphasizing active transportation and environmental awareness; Cluster 2, showing openness towards SAVs given reliable alternatives are available; Cluster 3, the largest segment, highlighting a demand for policy support and superior service quality; and Cluster 4, which places a premium on time, suggesting a potential need for strategies to make the service more efficient and, consequently, discourage private car use. These findings highlight a general willingness to adopt shared transport modes, signalling a promising transition to shared vehicle ownership with significant environmental benefits achievable through service design and policy measures.