Does car sharing reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Life cycle assessment of the modal shift and lifetime shift rebound effects

TL;DR

This study assesses the true impact of car-sharing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by including rebound effects and life-cycle emissions, revealing more modest reductions than previously estimated across three regions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model accounting for modal and lifetime shift rebound effects, providing a more accurate assessment of car-sharing's environmental impact.

Findings

Estimated emissions reduction of 3-18% across case studies.

Rebound effects significantly diminish the perceived benefits.

Previous estimates of up to 67% are substantially overstated.

Abstract

Car-sharing platforms provide access to a shared rather than a private fleet of automobiles distributed in the region. Participation in such services induces changes in mobility behaviour as well as vehicle ownership patterns that could have positive environmental impacts. This study contributes to the understanding of the total mobility-related greenhouse gas emissions reduction related to business-to-consumer car-sharing participation. A comprehensive model which takes into account distances travelled annually by the major urban transport modes as well as their life-cycle emissions factors is proposed, and the before-and-after analysis is conducted for an average car-sharing member in three geographical cases (Netherlands, San Francisco, Calgary). In addition to non-operational emissions for all the transport modes involved, this approach considers the rebound effects associated with the modal shift effect (substituting driving distances with alternative modes) and the lifetime shift effect for the shared automobiles, phenomena which have been barely analysed in the previous studies. As a result, in contrast to the previous impact assessments in the field, a significantly more modest reduction of the annual total mobility-related life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions caused by car-sharing participation has been estimated, 3-18% for three geographical case studies investigated (versus up to 67% estimated previously). This suggests the significance of the newly considered effects and provides with the practical implications for improved assessments in the future.