Carsharing: An overview on what we know

Nowadays, carsharing has become an important part of mobility in large cities. Throughout the whole world membership numbers as well as the number of services has been increasing. This chapter presents some of the most important results in carsharing literature. It first presents the results of a survey among carsharing users with focus on their demographics, trip purposes, and modal split. Furthermore, results of a data analysis are presented. Booking data of two German carsharing operators were obtained and analyzed to identify usage patterns. Both temporal and spatial patterns are shown as well as distributions of trip durations and trip distances. Finally, the vehicle relocation problem is introduced as it constitutes an important problem for carsharing operators and researchers likewise.