The Growing Urban Accessibility: A Model to Measure the Car Sharing Effectiveness Based on Parking Distances

The spread and development of shared mobility makes it possible to offer users various forms of shared service that promote a sustainable approach. The choice of transport mode often depends on the distance travelled and the motivation for the journey. Among the conditions and variables that most influence the propensity to use a shared transport mode, the distance between the users’ places of origin or destination and the parking areas covered plays an important role, especially in the case of station-based type. The common system that has become more and more widespread in Italy is car sharing, with its various forms (i.e. station-based, free-floating, electric vehicles) that allow the use of reserved parking spaces or shared with other circulating vehicles. In urban areas, people generally tend to walk the first and last mile or use micro-mobility, while for longer distances they tend to use private or shared motor vehicles. Starting from this premise, this thesis provides a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of car sharing by measuring the probability of using it based on parking distance. The proposed model is based on the estimation of O/D matrices with associated distance levels and the calculation of a probability index derived from several distance combinations. This research lays the foundation for a deeper analysis, which includes model calibration for different common mobility solutions and the evaluation of user probability in relation to implemented common mobility systems in several case studies.