Urban shared pooled mobility cuts distance travelled by half in Berlin
Shared pooled mobility has the potential to reduce both the necessary number of private vehicles and the total driven distance.
The implementation of sustainable traffic is one of the key challenges of decarbonisation. The transportation sector emits approximately 15% of the global greenhouse gas, out of which private vehicles and similar mobility options like motorcycles are responsible for 75% of this. In Germany, the transport sector is responsible for 18% of all emissions, with private vehicles alone responsible for 11%.
Shared pooled mobility has the potential to reduce both the necessary number of private vehicles and the total driven distance. The central idea behind ride-pooling or shared pooled mobility is to bundle similar car trips into the vehicles of a ride-pooling fleet.
As a result, the occupancy of the vehicles increases while the total driven distance and the number of necessary vehicles decreases. Ride-pooling offers a flexible and convenient alternative to line-based public transport.
New research published by Felix Creutzig uses logged car trips in Berlin as input for ride-pooling simulations to analyse the technical potential.
This research shows that a ride-pooling system with approximately 26,500 vehicles could replace all vehicle trips in Berlin if perfect acceptance is assumed. When focusing on the suburban areas, defined as regions with low transit access, around 8,700 vehicles would be required to replace all vehicle trips.
This amounts to a fleet size reduction of approximately 98%, with a decrease in the total driven distance by 61%, while the average travel time for passengers would increase by approximately 55.5%.
Furthermore, the research demonstrates that the number of vehicles required for a ride-pooling service is strongly influenced by population density and that shared pooled mobility systems at the city level can achieve huge system efficiency and quality of life gains − by eliminating congestion and providing public spaces for people instead of parked cars − but at considerable time and convenience costs for travelling individuals.
Read the full paper
This article is a summary of a research paper:
An urban shared pooled mobility system cuts distance travelled by over 50%
Authors: Alexander Schmaus, Felix Creutzig, Nicolas Koch, Florian Nachtigall, Nora Molkenthin
Funding:
Felix Creutzig acknowledges support by the CircEUlar Project funded by the Horizon Europe Research and Innovative Action Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101056810.
