Exploring the Impact of Shared Mobility: An In-depth Look at How Bike Share Services and Shared Automated Vehicles Will Impact our Transportation Systems

Abstract

This thesis looks at the effects of new mobility services on emissions, via travel behavior and vehicle design improvements. Using NHTS data we find that right sizing allowed by shared mobility services would significantly affect CAFE compliance because most fuel standards would be met by moving people into more fuel efficient vehicles and thus increasing the number of these sold by companies. We then found that right sizing has the ability to reduce fuel consumption by more than 40% depending on the car replacement scenario. These reductions can make additional improvements by incorporating bikeshare within the shared mobility service. To further understand the possible effects of bikeshare, we then focus our research in the Chicago area, where we find that bikeshare has a net positive impact on transit ridership, and that this effect increases as more time passes. We then looked at Portland’s Biketown to understand the effect of transit on bikeshare, but results were inconclusive. Overall we find that mobility services will likely reduce fuel use, and increasing bikeshare use can be used to grow this reduction, while also increasing the use of transit.