An economic and operational evaluation of urban car-sharing

Utilising cost benefit analysis techniques, in exactly the same way as the UK Government evaluates new roads and public transport schemes, car-sharing can be shown to produce very high net benefits to society. This paper shows that if a scheme were to be set up in the West Midlands area, UK, then even with the most conservative estimates of car-share participation, net benefits would be comparable to those produced by major road schemes. Indeed, slightly less conservative estimates of participation give net benefits in excess of road schemes.