The University of California Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) has found that one-way carsharing services boost mobility and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in urban areas of North America.

TSRC conducted a three-year study on the impact of one-way carsharing.

The study was conducted by TSRC co-director Susan Shaheen and research engineer Elliot Martiny

"car2go vehicles result in fewer privately-owned vehicles on the road, fewer vehicle miles traveled, and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions."

Shaheen said: “Our exhaustive, three-year research effort into one-way carsharing reveals that car2go vehicles result in fewer privately-owned vehicles on the road, fewer vehicle miles traveled, and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

“Participation from car2go and its members, gave us unprecedented access and insight into how this kind of innovative mobility service is impacting North American cities.”

For the study, TSRC partnered with car2go, a one-way car sharing service, in five cities, San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington; Washington, DC; Calgary, Alberta; and Vancouver, British Columbia, to gather data.

This data indicated that one-way carsharing cuts down the number of cars travelling on city roads and occupying city street parking spaces.

The study collected data from nearly 9,500 car2go members in these cities.

It found that each car2go vehicle removed 7 to11 vehicles from city roads. There was a 4-18% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions  as well as a 6-16% reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

It is estimated that the one-way carsharing service prevented between 10 to 29 million VMT annually per city. This inturn reduced between 5.5 and 12.7 metric tonnes of GHG emissions per vehicle annually.