Carlink--A Smart Carsharing System Field Test Report

Problem

Most trips in U.S. metropolitan regions are driven alone, which is costly to individuals and society and leads to congestion and air pollution. A carsharing system aims to reduce traffic by reducing the number of cars needed by households and encouraging commuters to walk, bike, and use transit for at least some of or part of their trips. For commuters especially, shared-use vehicles could offer a low-cost, low-hassle alternative to private vehicles. Furthermore, carsharing could help air quality by incorporating low-emission vehicles into shared-use fleets.

The CarLink field test combined short-term rental vehicles with communication and reservation technologies to facilitate shared-vehicle access. The ten-moth demonstration was implemented and researched by two teams at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis. Using surveys and focus groups, researchers explored attitudes toward the carsharing concept over time. This study builds upon the work of the CarLink longitudinal survey by linking carsharing market potential data to the CarLink field test population.

Findings

From an operational standpoint, CarLink had several successes. Among these were positive user experience with the smart technologies implemented with the CarLink fleet, high degree of user satisfaction, reasonable user fees, guaranteed CarLink fleet parking at BART and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for users, successful data collection, and positive media attention.

Operational difficulties included: participant shortfall due to the short project duration, delays caused by technology issues, a reservation system that should have been integrated with the vehicle location system to improve user access to vehicle availability information, vehicle cleanliness concerns among users, difficulty in assessing carpooling aspects of the project due to difficulty in matching participants' work schedules, and general management/organizational issues among the CarLink partnership.

In general, CarLink members represented a more affluent, highly educated, and mature group than reflected by Bay Area census data. Participants were also mostly male (67%) and married (69%). The environment, congestion, and the perception of "vehicle as hassle" were among the chief concerns of people interested in CarLink. Respondents also indicated high satisfaction with modal transportation before CarLink.

CarLink participants frequently altered their transportation habits and nearly all responded that even after the CarLink program ended, they would continue to use modes of transportation other than the personal, single-driver vehicle more frequently. Some users indicated that they would likely sell a personal auto and greatly reduce their transportation costs if CarLink were to become a permanent program.

In terms of the economic viability of CarLink, this study found that the best-case scenario showed a monthly profit of approximately $3,349 to $4,389 per month for the 12-vehicle fleet. More conservative estimates showed shortfalls of $2,500 to $4,750 per month.

Recommendations for future research include: expanding the program in fleet size and duration to attract more users, changing the employment center something more typical like an office park to investigate a more typical employee population, deployment of integrated technologies to better facilitate commuter-based carsharing, and development of systems to increase carpooling among participants.