The Car2Go Effect in DC

• July 25th 2016

by Nena Perry-Brown

A recent study from the University of California assessed the impact of car2go’s one-way car-sharing on vehicular use habits in cities where the service is active. The study results found that in DC, there are three to seven fewer vehicles on the road for every car2go in use.

Out of 37,000 users in DC, the report found that five percent of car2go users sold their vehicle and seven percent elected not to purchase one. This translates to three cars sold and four vehicles not purchased per operating car2go vehicle in the city.

When extrapolated to the larger fleet in DC, 1,832 vehicles were sold and 2,776 purchases were suppressed for a total of 4,608 fewer vehicles on the road in 2015. As for whether car2go use had an impact on usage of other forms of transportation, DC residents who use car2go were far less likely to use the bus or train.

Overall results of car2go’s impact show that two to five percent of users sold their car, which equates to one to three vehicles sold per car2go on the street. Four to nine percent of users elected not to purchase a car, which equates to a total of 7-11 fewer vehicles per car2go. This amounts to 28,000 fewer vehicles on the street across the five cities studied.

Although car2go’s effects on vehicular use were deemed significant, it still takes a while for a city’s residents to adapt to the service. The study also shows that overall, there is a greater effect on “suppression”, or the decision not to purchase a vehicle, than on “shedding”, or the decision to sell a vehicle.

The data for the report was gathered via an online survey of nearly 9,500 car2go members in the District, San Diego, Seattle, and the Canadian cities of Calgary, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia. For the purposes of the study, car2go users are defined as those who use the service at least once per month.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/car2go_doing_its_share_on_supplanting_car_ownership_in_cities/11506.