UC Mobility Cooperative
Project Sponsor: The Energy Institute at Haas
TGIF Grant: $1,981
Project Theme: Transportation & Urban Development
Project Description: Several studies have shown that car sharing reduces the environmental impact of transportation by decreasing the total number of vehicles and increasing use of alternative travel modes such as public transit. Given that most privately-owned vehicles are only used about 5% of the time, it also makes common sense. But despite rapid growth in recent years, car sharing has failed to become a primary mode of transportation, and remains more expensive than car ownership in most cases. In order to become economical and mainstream, car sharing will need to replace ownership entirely, which means the sharing system must affordably serve all of a car owner’s transportation needs, from daily commuting to long road trips. The goal of the UC Mobility Cooperative is to leverage pre-existing social networks to reduce many of the barriers associated with car sharing, and launch a sharing platform that can provide the same flexibility and convenience as private vehicle ownership with lower cost and carbon footprint.
Project Goals:
- Monitor the driving habits of members of the UCB community to assess the potential efficiency gains of car sharing within their respective campus groups.
- Develop a smartphone app to manage peer-to-peer car-sharing within these groups
- Implement initial pilot projects within two campus groups allowing group members to share cars with each other.
- Assess the potential for reducing the total number of cars and replacing some with short-range battery electric vehicles.
- Measure impacts on driving habits, transportation expenditures, and greenhouse gas emissions.