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Sustainable mobility solutions: A pre-implementation questionnaire study for carsharing
Abstract
This article presents a pre-implementation questionnaire study for a new carsharing system in La Rochelle, France. The questionnaire seeks responses on four main factors: profile of the users, transportation behaviour of users, willingness to use carsharing and preferences for new carsharing stations in La Rochelle. The target groups surveyed were city residents, tourists, businessmen, students and city transport organisations namely city of La Rochelle, CdA La Rochelle and Conseil Generale du Charente Maritime. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed in-person and a response rate of 81.4% was received. The findings of this study reveal useful information on the feasibility of the offer, user motivations and service design aspects for the new carsharing system. It was found during the study that appropriate marketing strategies and awareness campaigns are required to inform people about carsharing. Other areas of improvement are ensuring availability of vehicles at times, easy access to carsharing stations, easy return procedure for vehicles after use, low trip costs and providing vehicles suited to user needs. These findings have strengthened the need for a new carsharing system in the city and have identified appropriate operational factors for its implementation.
... Although in the literature there are no indications on how large the critical mass should be, it is clear that in FVG the market is only at its very early stage of development and that it will take more effort by all the stakeholders involved in its growth before it represents a viable alternative to owing a car. As already found by Awasthi et al. (2009) with respect to B2CCS, appropriate marketing strategies and awareness campaigns are essential for the success of this new form of carsharing. ...
Mobility plays a crucial role in wellbeing and quality of life. It enables access to services and resources necessary for economic and cultural development and is essential for social inclusion. Peer-to-peer carsharing (P2PCS) represents an effective solution with respect to the sustainability goals indicated by the European New Green Deal and in light of the accessibility objectives of the National Strategy for Internal Areas. For this reason, we estimated the potential supply and demand of P2PCS in Friuli-Venezia Giulia (FVG), an Italian region characterized by less-densely populated areas. We interviewed 200 individuals to test if they would rent a car and 249 car owners to test if they would rent out their car. We found that 10% of the sample would use a P2PCS service if the hourly rental rate was €7/h. The main reason preventing the service use is that the FVG residents are not aware of the platforms allowing the matching of car owners and renters. In the paper, we describe also the policies to be implemented to support both the demand and the supply side of the market and we estimate the contribution that P2PCS could make to the decarbonization of the regional transport system.
... Nazam, Jiuping, Zhimiao, Jamil, and Muhammad (2015) use it in combination with other methods such as AHP for measuring sustainability performance. Yedla and Shrestha (2003), Sayers, Jessop, and Hills (2003), Shang, Tjader, and Ding (2004), Tzeng, Lin, and Opricovic (2005), Brey et al. (2007), Awasthi, Breuil, Chauhan, Parent, and Reveillere (2007), Awasthi, Chauhan, Hurteau, and Breuil (2008), Awasthi, Chauhan, and Breuil (2009), Awasthi, Chauhan, and Goyal (2011), Awasthi, Chauhan, and Omrani (2011), Omrani, Awasthi, Ion, and Trigano (2009 (2015), Le Pira, Inturri, Ignaccolo, and Pluchino (2015), Curiel-Esparza, Mazario-Diez, Canto-Perello, and Martin-Utrillas (2016) Fuzzy set theory Teng and Tzeng (1996), Avineri, Praskker, and Ceder (2000), Goyal (2011), Tyagi, Agrawal, Yang, andYing (2017) Table 1 summarises the commonly used methods for sustainable mobility evaluation. It can be seen in Table 1 that multicriteria decision-making is the most popular technique followed by assessment indicator models, simulation, optimisation, and cost benefit/effectiveness analysis. ...
Transportation systems are growing and complex systems. The presence of multiple, correlated, dynamically changing elements in this system with dependence and feedback add further complexity to the problem. In this paper, we present an integrated approach based on system dynamics (SD) simulation and analytic network process (ANP) for evaluating sustainable transport policies. Five policies namely trip sharing (TRS), trip rate reduction (TRR), reducing the length of the road network (LRN), car ownership (CAO), and average kilometres travelled (AKT) are evaluated against three criteria namely congestion level (CONG), fuel consumption (FULC), and emission (EMIS). The data for the policies is generated via system dynamics simulation. ANP is used to rank the evaluation criteria and the alternatives (sustainable transportation policies). A numerical study is provided. The results of our study reveal that trip sharing based policies perform better in comparison to the other policies for achieving sustainability in a transportation system.
... r Others: this category includes approaches based on specific frameworks such as life cycle analysis, cost benefit analysis, problem-structuring model, linkage based frameworks, survey studies (Awasthi, Chauhan, & Breuil, 2009) and scenario building (Annema, Mouter, & Razaei, 2015). Table 1 summarises the various approaches used in transportation project evaluation. ...
Sustainable mobility project evaluation is a challenging problem for transportation decision-makers. The specific context of each city, involvement of multiple objectives of stakeholders, governmental priorities, uncertainty about evaluation process and metrics combined with lack of quantitative data make the problem challenging. Existing techniques for project selection often ignore proximity of criteria scores to targets values (or goals) which can lead to sub-optimal solutions. In this paper, we propose a goal-oriented approach based on fuzzy axiomatic design for prioritising sustainable mobility projects. The criteria (attributes) for sustainability evaluation are generated using affinity diagram technique. Fuzzy Delphi technique is used to rate the criteria and the alternatives. The final rankings for the urban mobility projects are generated using fuzzy axiomatic design and the best project(s) are chosen for implementation. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine the influence of variation in input parameters on stability of model results. A numerical application for ranking of three sustainable mobility projects in the context of city of Luxembourg is provided.
... Examples of these approaches are market surveys, case studies, personal interviews, expert opinions, etc. Mohan and Tiwari (1999) use statistical data to illustrate the need of nonmotorised modes of traffic and associated infrastructure design for designing sustainable transport system for urban areas. Awasthi, Chauhan, and Breuil (2009) propose a questionnaire-based study for evaluating sustainable mobility solutions namely carsharing. ...
Sustainable transportation planning is vital to manage resources effectively and minimise air pollution, noise and congestion in cities. In this paper, we present a simulation-based optimisation approach for identifying key determinants for sustainable transportation planning. The proposed approach comprises of five steps. In the first step, a system dynamics (SD) based conceptual model is proposed for understanding sustainable transportation system and its components. Step 2 involves running the SD model to generate data on sustainable transportation key factors. Step 3 involves conducting design of experiments and analysis of variance on the simulated data to develop regression-based metamodel for identifying the key determinants for sustainable transportation planning. In step 4, optimisation of the key factors for achieving sustainability is performed. Finally, in step 5, sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine the sensitivity of model outputs (dependent variables) to changes in input parameters (key factors or independent variables). An empirical illustration is provided to illustrate the proposed approach. Transportation systems are complex and dynamic involving a multitude of variables. Optimising all variables at a time may not be economically and practically feasible. The proposed approach assists in determining critical variables for achieving sustainability objectives in transportation.
... This factor has been measured to be ideally above or equal to 100,000 people per km 2 . Moreover, a reliable public transportation service is fundamental to the long-term success of the carsharing stations since people need to easily access them throughout the year, be it in summer or winter; hence, the greater the number and frequency of public transportation access links are, the higher the probability of local carsharing success (Awasthi, Chauhan, & Breuil, 2009;Barth, Shaheen, & Todd, 2004;Cohen, Darius, & Shaheen, 2006;Drews, Welch, Juedes, & Fleeman, 2004;Fukuzawa, Shimazaki, & Shimohara, 2005). Furthermore, it has been proven by several authors that stations should be located on average at less than 10 min walking distance from the members' households or locations (such as train stations, etc.). ...
Carsharing organizations are nowadays faced with the emergence of new markets due to the growing popularity of their services. To keep up with the growing demand, they have to constantly adapt their network and balance their stations’ capacities by implementing new strategies. These strategies involve creation of new carsharing stations, increasing the capacity of stations, merging or demerging carsharing stations etc. Currently, the decision makers rely on an intuitive strategy selection process which often results in inadequate decisions being made representing an immediate loss in resources, time and market penetration. This paper presents a discrete event simulation based decision support tool that assists the decision makers in selecting best network growth strategies to implement for meeting adequately the demand growth while maximizing the members’ satisfaction level and minimizing the number of vehicles used. Our discrete event simulation model allows modeling the activities at any given set of carsharing stations, regardless of their number and capacities. A benchmarking comparison of different potential strategies is done. An application of the proposed model on a region of Communauto’s Montréal (Québec, Canada) carsharing network is provided.
Sustainability evaluation of new urban mobility projects is a challenging decision due to the presence of multiple objectives (social, economic, environmental), limited data availability, presence of multiple stakeholders, and specific context of each city. Scenario modeling and simulation is a useful tool to address such situations. In this paper, we present a fuzzy cognitive mapping-based scenario simulation approach for evaluating sustainable mobility projects. Linguistic assessments and fuzzy set theory are used to address the uncertainty arising from lack of quantitative data. The criteria for sustainability evaluation are obtained using fuzzy Delphi technique. A numerical application is provided for the city of Luxemburg. The strength of the proposed approach is the ability to aid in decision-making of new sustainable mobility project evaluation and selection under limited or no quantitative data availability. In addition, it is able to deal with multiple, co-related and conflicting criteria in evaluation.
This paper discusses some of the decisions to be made in when starting a new carsharing service. These include selection of business type; pricing issues; identification of target membership markets; vehicle selection, financing & insurance; reservation/scheduling systems & in-vehicle telematics (on-board computer); parking, staffing, marketing, partnerships. A simplified spreadsheet model to compare various pricing and expense scenarios is presented. Finally, a brief discussion is presented of the possibilities of franchising and outsourcing certain functions; as well as several innovative service models, including exclusive use vehicles, van shuttles, open-ended, and one-way reservations. This paper will be a useful overview of the industry for entrepreneurs considering starting a carsharing service, as well as public agencies wanting to partner with a carsharing service, both in North America or in developing nations of the world.
A survey of attitudes to carsharing is described. Stated response techniques were used, with respondents asked to make various choices between hypothetical alternatives and to indicate how they would behave in hypothetical situations. This provided a rich but inexpensive set of data on the preferences and predicted behaviour of people in Calgary, Canada who generally had no prior experience with carsharing. The impacts of various service attributes on the overall attractiveness of carsharing are shown, allowing different service options to be compared as to their attractiveness. Various socio-economic and neighbourhood characteristics were found to strongly influence the choice of whether to car share. The survey results have already directly influenced an organization that plans to implement car sharing in Calgary. KEY WORDS car sharing; stated response; stated preference; Calgary, Canada Abraham page 1 1. INTRODUCTION A car sharing service makes vehicles available in a way that fa...