Carsharing and the Built Environment

The term “carsharing” refers to a distinct business process wherein CSOs typically provide their members with short-term vehicle access from a network of unstaffed and distributed neighborhood locations. Members pay a flat hourly or per mile fee, or both, that includes fuel and insurance costs. These characteristics make carsharing distinct from car rental, through which vehicles are borrowed under a negotiated contract with the customer for longer periods and from centralized, staffed locations. Carsharing comes in many flavors, and, to add confusion, the term “carsharing” has also been used to describe both shared-use vehicles and what is now known as ridesharing or carpooling. This paper uses the framework developed by Barth and Shaheen that describes the spectrum of carsharing services from station cars (transit-linked vehicles) to the short-term vehicle use that has become popular worldwide (1). This paper uses “carsharing” to refer to a classic CSO that distributes cars from neighborhood locations on a very short-term basis, typically a few hours at a time. In addition, the industry term “pod” is used to refer to a carsharing parking location that can house one or more vehicles at the same time.