Comparing carsharing users’ characteristics, travel behavior, and car ownership under increasing carsharing market penetration: A repeated cross-sectional analysis

This study examines the extent to which the maturation of a carsharing market is associated with changes in the characteristics of its users and its mobility impacts. The analysis draws on two repeated cross-sectional surveys of the general population in Hamburg, Germany, a city that has experienced a substantial increase in carsharing market penetration in recent years, largely driven by the expansion of free-floating carsharing services. During the first survey period (2016/2017), carsharing in Hamburg was still in an early adopter phase, whereas by the second period (2023/2024) it had become a mainstream mobility option. Between these periods, the share of carsharing users among licensed drivers increased from 13 % to 24 %. Despite this transition, the sociodemographic profile of carsharing users remained remarkably stable. In both periods, users were predominantly male, young or middle-aged, highly educated, comparatively affluent, and residents of the city center. Accordingly, only limited convergence between users and non-users was observed. Likewise, travel behavior and car ownership among carsharing users changed little. Although carsharing users consistently owned fewer cars than non-users, the prevalence of car-free households did not increase as the market matured. At the same time, carsharing users with and without private car ownership became more similar in their sociodemographic characteristics, suggesting that the association between carsharing and car ownership became less socio-demographically selective over time. Overall, the findings indicate that market growth alone is insufficient to broaden the appeal and impacts of carsharing, highlighting the need for targeted transport policy interventions to engage underrepresented population groups.

Subjects

Adoption

Diffusion

Innovation

Sociodemographics

Transport equity

Transport policy

DDC Class

388: Transportation

Lizenz

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publication version

publishedVersion

Name

1-s2.0-S2590198226003295-main.pdf

Size

4.38 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

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Comparing carsharing users’ characteristics, travel behavior, and car ownership under increasing carsharing market penetration: A repeated cross-sectional analysis