Sustainable Commuting: Results from a Social Approach and International Evidence on Carpooling

Abstract

Sustainable commuting (SC) usually refers to environmentally friendly travel modes, such as public transport (bus, tram, subway, light rail), walking, cycling, and carpooling. The double aim of the paper is to summarize relevant prior results in commuting from a social approach, and to provide new, international empirical evidence on carpooling as a specific mode of sustainable commuting. The literature shows that certain socio-demographic characteristics clearly affect the use of non-motorized alternatives, and compared to driving, well-being is greater for those using active travel or public transport. Additionally, this paper analyzes the behavior of carpooling for commuting, using ordinary least squares (OLS) models, which have been estimated from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) for the following countries: Bulgaria, Canada, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results indicate that carpooling for commuting is not habitual for workers, as less than 25% of the total time from/to work by car is done with others on board. With respect to the role of the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals, our evidence indicates that age, gender, education, being native, and household composition may have a cross-country, consistent relationship with carpooling participation. Given that socializing is the main reason for carpooling, in the current COVID-19 pandemic, carpooling may be decreasing and, consequently, initiatives have been launched to show that carpooling is a necessary way to avoid crowded modes of transport. Thus, the development of high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes by local authorities can increase carpooling, and draw attention to the economic and environmental benefits of carpooling for potential users.

Exploring the Effects of Carpooling on Travelers’ Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Metropolitan City

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, people's preferences for modes of transportation did not change. Another multicountry study suggests that carpooling appears to be slightly decreasing in the COVID-19 pandemic [9]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, only the rate of private transportation and motorcycles increased.…”

“…Globally, travel demand management strategies have been implemented to address transportation challenges [7,8]. Carpooling fleets are rapidly expanding, including in China, France, the United States, Europe, the Netherlands, Greece, India, and Canada [9]. Carpooling is a type of sharing economy, in which individuals pool their vehicles to utilize a service.…”

“…This unoccupied parking space can be used for additional commercial purposes or active transportation. Along with environmental benefits, carpoolers can benefit from shared travel costs, time savings from driving in high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, decreased commuting stress, and, in certain situations, preferential parking and other incentives [9,13,14]. Additionally, carpooling services enable two or more unrelated individuals to share a trip or a portion of a trip, with passengers contributing to the driver's expenses [15,16].…”

The Future and Sustainability of Carpooling Practices. An Identification of Research Challenges

“…As shown by the size of our corpus and the two most recent meta-analyses on the topic [7,18], carpooling has long been a topic of numerous academic studies during the last decade. Our analysis of the main research topics underlines that many of the selected papers have investigated the profile of carpoolers [29][30][31][32]-or, more often, people expressing an intention to carpool [1,[33][34][35][36]]-compared to non-carpoolers, and their main motivations to practice carpooling [13,37]. Findings revealed that psychological dimensions, such as attitude towards carpooling, enjoyment of being sociable, trust in other people, environmentalist identity and the role of the family circle and peer group, are more influential than classical socio-demographic, economic and spatial variables [38][39][40][41][42].…”

“…Studies are also needed on the impacts on the other shared modes of transport, such as carpooling. In particular, carpooling could be less impacted than public transport or it could even benefit from the situation since it could be considered less risky than public transport [32,158,159] due to fewer people or because carpooling apps could require sanitary guarantees such as a health pass. On the other hand, carpooling could be considered a risky transport mode compared to solo driving.…”