Supply characteristics and membership choice in round-trip and free-floating carsharing systems

Carsharing is a car rental system in which members have access to a fleet of cars on a relatively short time basis. Several different types of car-sharing services have been developed such as round-trip and free-floating: the first one is characterized by a more rigid structure because of its station-based nature, the second tends to be more flexible since a customer can pick up and drop off the car in any public parking inside a wide area. Being a member is the first step users have to take to use this sharing service. This study focuses on the analysis of supply attributes directly linked to territorial characteristics such as parking availability, parking price, distance from the city center, users' trip chain in relation with location of activities and their impact on the membership choice. By using a binary logit model, and a synthetic population of the city of Berlin representing members of both the round-trip and the free-floating service, and through a sensitivity analysis, the study shows how membership is sensible to some of these attributes identifying which supply characteristics impact the user membership choice. Results suggest there are two typical membership profiles and the attributes that lead the choice are different. While a round-trip carsharing member is more willing to drive towards more than one destination and does not always have his/her own car available, the free-floating carsharing member is more apt to use a point-to-point trip scheme driving for more than 15 minutes using the service as substitute of the owned car.