Free-floating car sharing services (FFCS) have been offered as a more flexible mobility solution than other car sharing services. FFCS users can pick up and return cars anywhere within a specified area in a city.The objective of this paper is to identify similar usage patterns of FFCS in different cities as well as city characteristics that make these services a viable option. The authors have access to real booking data for 32 cities in Europe and North America. Their study shows the share of daily car trips is negatively correlated to the utilization rate of these services. Also, the higher the congestion and the harder finding a parking lot, the lower the utilization rate of these services is in the cities. Moreover, our results suggest that FFCS services do not compete with public transport but are rather used in combination to it. These services are mainly used during midday and evening peak and the trips taken by these services are mainly chained trips.The clustering analysis shows that the trips are grouped into two or three clusters in different cities. The majority of clusters are the inner city clusters which contain a significantly higher number of trips than the clusters around other points of interest such as airports.
This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values.