From car ownership to carsharing: the effect of tailored information and framing

Author(s):  
Alice Ciccone
Author(s):  
Peter Scott

From an international perspective, the inter-war car industry was a British success story. Britain ranked only second to the United States as the world’s leading producer of, and market for, automobiles, owing to a relatively strong domestic market by European standards. However, while consumers’ expenditure was high, it was not deep—car ownership per capita in 1938 being around a third of US levels. This chapter examines why the British automobile sector failed to take off into mass market diffusion. A number of important factors are highlighted, including lower British wages relative to the United States; punitive vehicle and petrol taxation; and the high unit production costs incurred in serving a market too small to justify Fordist mass production. However, a more fundamental reason was the low priority given to car ownership in a relatively small, densely populated, and highly urbanized island nation with well-developed public transport networks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2418
Author(s):  
Ana María Arbeláez Vélez ◽  
Andrius Plepys

Shared mobility options, such as car sharing, are often claimed to be more sustainable, although evidence at an individual or city level may contradict these claims. This study aims to improve understanding of the effects of car sharing on transport-related emissions at an individual and city level. This is done by quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the travel habits of individuals before and after engaging with car sharing. The analysis uses a well-to-wheel (WTW) approach, including both business-to-consumer (B2C) and peer-to-peer (P2P) car-sharing fleets. Changes in GHG emissions after engaging in car sharing vary among individuals. Transport-related GHG emissions caused by car-free individuals tend to increase after they engage in car sharing, while emissions caused by previous car owners tend to fall. At the city level, GHG emissions savings can be achieved by using more efficient cars in sharing systems and by implementing greener mobility policies. Changes in travel habits might help to reduce GHG emissions, providing individuals migrate to low-carbon transport modes. The findings can be used to support the development and implementation of transport policies that deter car ownership and support shared mobility solutions that are integrated in city transport systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1962
Author(s):  
Timo Liljamo ◽  
Heikki Liimatainen ◽  
Markus Pöllänen ◽  
Riku Viri

Car ownership is one of the key factors affecting travel behaviour and thus also essential in terms of sustainable mobility. This study examines car ownership and how people’s willingness to own a car may change in the future, when considering the effects of public transport, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and automated vehicles (AVs). Results of two citizen surveys conducted with representative samples (NAV-survey = 2036; NMaaS-survey = 1176) of Finns aged 18–64 are presented. The results show that 39% of respondents would not want or need to own a car if public transport connections were good enough, 58% if the described mobility service was available and 65% if all vehicles in traffic were automated. Hence, car ownership can decrease as a result of the implementation of AVs and MaaS, and higher public transport quality of service. Current mobility behaviour has a strong correlation to car ownership, as respondents who use public transport frequently feel less of a will or need to own a car than others. Generally, women and younger people feel less of a will or need to own a car, but factors such as educational level and residential location seem to have a relatively low effect.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6816
Author(s):  
Gaofeng Gu ◽  
Tao Feng ◽  
Chixing Zhong ◽  
Xiaoxi Cai ◽  
Jiang Li

Life course events can change household travel demand dramatically. Recent studies of car ownership have examined the impacts of life course events on the purchasing, replacing, and disposing of cars. However, with the increasing diversification of mobility tools, changing the fleet size is not the only option to adapt to the change caused by life course events. People have various options with the development of sustainable mobility tools including electric car, electric bike, and car sharing. In order to determine the impacts of life course events on car ownership and the decision of mobility tool type, a stated choice experiment was conducted. The experiment also investigated how the attributes of mobility tools related to the acceptance of them. Based on existing literature, we identified the attributes of mobility tools and several life course events which are considered to be influential in car ownership decision and new types of mobility tools choice. The error component random parameter logit model was estimated. The heterogeneity across people on current car and specific mobility tools are considered. The results indicate people incline not to sell their current car when they choose an electric bike or shared car. Regarding the life course events, baby birth increases the probability to purchase an additional car, while it decreases the probability to purchase an electric bike or joining a car sharing scheme. Moreover, the estimation of error components implies that there is unobserved heterogeneity across respondents on the sustainable mobility tools choice and the decision on household’s current car.


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