ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A newly published report by the Fuels Institute takes a deep dive into the car-sharing trend taking place in many major cities across the country. Companies such as Uber, Lyft, ZipCar and Car2Go have become very popular transportation options for consumers in search of convenient means of travel.

This trend raises several questions: Where is car-sharing happening? What is the demographic of users? Has car-sharing had any impact on vehicle ownership and vehicle miles traveled (VMT)? Have these trends had any effect on fuel demand?

The report looks to answer these questions by reviewing the fleet of each service, the location of these services and the demographic being served. This combination of data reveals valuable insights into the decisions each company has made in where to locate and why.

In general, the study found that the sharing economy has spawned four related business strategy models: one-way car-sharing, two-way car-sharing, peer-to-peer rental and ride-sourcing. These companies tend to target areas with smaller households, fewer vehicles per household, higher income and more education. In most states, this means the principal city of a metropolitan area.

This report notes that car-sharing is still in its infancy and the data presented on vehicle ownership and VMT should be seen as a very basic starting point for future tracking. However, the strategy of focusing on densely populated affluent communities has allowed these companies to begin growing at a scale consistent with their markets’ ability to take advantage of their anticipated growth. The critical long-term question will be whether measurable changes in narrowly targeted micro-areas, if found to exist, will scale up into large-scale macro trends.

The executive summary and the report have been made publically available by the Fuels Institute. Both can be accessed here.

In addition, you can join the conversation on this and other research projects sponsored or published by the Fuels Institute at the organization’s website or via social media on LinkedIn.