Technology, transport, and the sharing economy: towards a working taxonomy for shared mobility

Figures & data

Figure 1. Number of peer reviewed publications from 2000 to 2019 that mention the term “Shared Mobility” in their title, abstract or keywords, using data from Web of Science and Scopus. Search carried out on April 2020.

Figure 2. Typology of services that fall under the term “sharing economy” with examples (Schor & Fitzmaurice, 2015).

Figure 3. A taxonomy of shared mobility models proposed by Santos (2018).

Figure 4. A taxonomy of shared mobility services.

Table 1. Proposed terms and examples of their usage in the literature and in existing services.

Proposed term (corresponding to Figure 4)		Examples of its usage in the literature		Examples of existing services
1	Vehicle pooling	Car pooling	Ben-Akiva and Atherton (1977), Montero (2019), Teal (1987)	Mobicoop
		Van pooling	Kircher and Wapensky (1978), Maxwell and McIntyre (1979)
2a	P2P vehicle sharing	P2P car sharing	Shaheen, Cohen, and Jaffee (2018)	Getaround, Turo, Spinlister
2b	P2P mobility asset sharing	P2P parking sharing	Lai, Cai, and Hu (2021)	JustPark
3	Ridehailing/ridesharing	Ridehailing/ridesharing	Rayle, Dai, Chan, Cervero, and Shaheen (2016), Shaheen (2018), Wang and Mu (2018)	Uber, Lyft, Via, RideAustin
4	Public vehicle sharing	Public bike-sharing	Parkes, Marsden, Shaheen, and Cohen (2013)	HealthyRide
5a	Private vehicle sharing	Car sharing/car clubs	Kent and Dowling (2013), Novikova (2017), Wagner and Shaheen (2016)	Car2Go, Zipcar
		Bike-sharing	Lan, Ma, Zhu, Mangalagiu, and Thornton (2017), McKenzie (2018)	Mobike
		Scooter-sharing	Clewlow (2018)	Lime, Bird
5b	Private mobility asset sharing	Parking space sharing	Xiao, Zhang, and Yan (2009)	SpotHero
6	Microtransit/Demand Responsive Tranport (DRT)/On-demand transit	Microtransit/Demand Responsive Tranport (DRT)/On-demand transit	Brake, Nelson, and Wright (2004), Chebbi and Chaouachi (2015), Wilhelms, Henkel, and Falk (2017)	Chariot, Bridj
7	Public vehicle sharing	Public bike-sharing (PBS)	Parkes et al. (2013)	Velib’, Capital Bikeshare
8	Public ride sharing	On-demand public transport	Ronald, Yang, and Thompson (2016)	Kustuplus, GoSuttonBus

Note that the column “Proposed term” corresponds to the taxonomy presented in Figure 4.

Mobicoop in France is a community run site that facilitates connections between drivers and passengers without a commission and survives on donations.

Schor, J. B., & Fitzmaurice, C. J. (2015). Collaborating and connecting: The emergence of the sharing economy. In Handbook of Research on Sustainable Consumption. Edward Elgar Publishing. doi:10.4337/9781783471270

 Google Scholar

Santos, G. (2018). Sustainability and shared mobility models. Sustainability, 10(9), 3194. doi:10.3390/su10093194

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Ben-Akiva, M., & Atherton, T. J. (1977). Methodology for short-range travel demand predictions: Analysis of carpooling incentives. Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 11(3), 224–261.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Montero, J. J. (2019). Regulating transport platforms: The case of carpooling in Europe. In M. Finger & M. Audouin (Eds.), The governance of smart transportation systems (pp. 13–35). Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96526-0_2

 Google Scholar

Teal, R. F. (1987). Carpooling: Who, how and why. Transportation Research Part A: General, 21(3), 203–214. doi:10.1016/0191-2607(87)90014-8

 Google Scholar

Kircher, D., & Wapensky, L. (1978). Vanpooling: An overview.

 Google Scholar

Maxwell, D. A., & McIntyre, J. P. (1979). Economics of vanpooling. Transportation Research Record, 724, 52–57.

 Google Scholar

Shaheen, S., Cohen, A., & Jaffee, M. (2018). Innovative mobility: Carsharing outlook.

 Google Scholar

Lai, M., Cai, X., & Hu, Q. (2021). Market design for commute-driven private parking lot sharing. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 124, 102915. doi:10.1016/j.trc.2020.102915

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Rayle, L., Dai, D., Chan, N., Cervero, R., & Shaheen, S. (2016). Just a better taxi? A survey-based comparison of taxis, transit, and ridesourcing services in San Francisco. Transport Policy, 45, 168–178. doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2015.10.004

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Shaheen, S. (2018). Shared mobility: The potential of ridehailing and pooling. In D. Sperling (Ed.), Three revolutions (pp. 55–76). Washington, DC: Island Press.

 Google Scholar

Wang, M., & Mu, L. (2018). Spatial disparities of Uber accessibility: An exploratory analysis in Atlanta, USA. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 67, 169–175. doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2017.09.003

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Parkes, S. D., Marsden, G., Shaheen, S. A., & Cohen, A. P. (2013). Understanding the diffusion of public bikesharing systems: Evidence from Europe and North America. Journal of Transport Geography, 31, 94–103. doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2013.06.003

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Kent, J. L., & Dowling, R. (2013). Puncturing automobility? Carsharing practices. Journal of Transport Geography, 32, 86–92. doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2013.08.014

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Novikova, O. (2017). The sharing economy and the future of personal mobility: New models based on car sharing. Technology Innovation Management Review, 7, 8.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Wagner, C., & Shaheen, S. (2016). Car sharing and mobility management: Facing new challenges with technology and innovative business planning. 8.

 Google Scholar

Lan, J., Ma, Y., Zhu, D., Mangalagiu, D., & Thornton, T. (2017). Enabling value co-creation in the sharing economy: The case of mobike. Sustainability, 9(9), 1504. doi:10.3390/su9091504

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

McKenzie, G. (2018). Docked vs. dockless bike-sharing: Contrasting spatiotemporal patterns (Short Paper). doi:10.4230/lipics.giscience.2018.46

 Google Scholar

Clewlow, R. (2018). The micro-mobility revolution: The introduction and adoption of electric scooters in the United States.

 Google Scholar

Xiao, F., Zhang, L. X., & Yan, K. F. (2009). Parking demand forecasting based on parking space sharing. Urban Transport of China, 3, 015.

 Google Scholar

Brake, J., Nelson, J. D., & Wright, S. (2004). Demand responsive transport: Towards the emergence of a new market segment. Journal of Transport Geography, 12(4), 323–337. doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2004.08.011

 Google Scholar

Chebbi, O., & Chaouachi, J. (2015). Modeling on-demand transit transportation system using an agent-based approach. In K. Saeed & W. Homenda (Eds.), Computer information systems and industrial management (pp. 316–326). Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24369-6_26

 Google Scholar

Wilhelms, M.-P., Henkel, S., & Falk, T. (2017). To earn is not enough: A means-end analysis to uncover peer-providers’ participation motives in peer-to-peer carsharing. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 125, 38–47. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2017.03.030

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Ronald, N., Yang, J., & Thompson, R. G. (2016). Exploring co-modality using on-demand transport systems. Transportation Research Procedia, 12, 203–212. doi:10.1016/j.trpro.2016.02.059

 Google Scholar