Car-sharing is a service that provides members with access to a fleet of vehicles on an hourly basis. Members reserve a car online or by phone, walk to the nearest lot, open the doors with an electronic key card, and drive off.

One of the newest additions to the transportation toolbox, car-sharing has the potential to change people's relationship to the car - particularly in dense, urban communities. Car-sharing is usually run by independent operators, but can help achieve many of the goals of partner organizations such as transit agencies, local governments, universities and developers.

Until now, however, little guidance has been available to these partner organizations on how they can support car-sharing - and the benefits that they can expect to realize, such as increased transit ridership. This new Transportation Research Board report by Nelson\Nygaard, in association with Westat, analyzes the impacts of car-sharing and the markets where it can hope to succeed, and shows how partners can help to bring car-sharing to their own communities. All files below are in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF).

Download the Executive Summary (2.8 MB)

Download a Partner Profile for:

• local governments (4.9 MB)
• transit agencies (5.2 MB)
• developers (9.9 MB)
• employers and businesses (6.2 MB)
• universities (5.8 MB)

Download the full report (10.7 MB)

To download the full appendices, please visit: http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=5634

TCRP Report 108, Car-Sharing: Where and How it Succeeds is published by the Transportation Research Board. For hard copies, visit www.tcrponline.org or www.trb.org. This report does not imply Transportation Research Board or FTA endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice.