Car: Book Or Buy?
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-ii- CAR: BOOK OR BUY? An explorative study towards the modelling of carsharing participation in the Dutch travel demand model (LMS) BY ANK VAN PAASSEN IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING - TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND LOGISTICS AT DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, TO BE DEFENDED PUBLICLY ON MONDAY MAY 7, 2018. THESIS COMMITTEE Prof. dr. ir. C.G. (Caspar) Chorus TU Delft Dr. ir. S. (Sander) van Cranenburgh TU Delft Dr. ir. R. (Rob) van Nes TU Delft Dr. F. (Frank) Hofman RWS VWMA Dr. N. B. (Noortje) Groot ILT (Formerly RWS VWMA) Dr. J. (Jasper) Willigers Significance -iii- CANDIDATE: A. VAN PAASSEN ID 4107144 E [email protected] T 0619610940 EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION: DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND GEOSCIENCES MSC TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND LOGISTICS TRACK: ENGINEERING IN COLLABORATION WITH: RIJKSWATERSTAAT DIVISION: WATER, TRANSPORT & ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT: MODELS AND APPLICATIONS & SIGNIFICANCE An electronic version of this thesis is available at https://repository.tudelft.nl/ -iv- PREFACE In front of you is the work that signifies the end of my time as a student and the start of a new chapter, where I will experience to what extent my education has prepared me for my working life. During my Masters Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics at the TU Delft, I have repetitively asked myself whether I should not just quit and start working already, until I stumbled across the topic travel demand modelling. From that moment on, I did not only knew what electives to take in the remaining part of my Masters, but also that I might have found a topic that could actually make me enjoy my graduation work. And so I did. Looking back on the past 8 months, I can definitely state that I am happy to have persisted. It was a time in which I have visited numerous inspiring events, met many interesting people, and learned more than I had ever expected. I would not have had such a great experience without the support of numerous people. First of all, special thanks go to my committee, an excessive list of supervisors. Prof. Caspar Chorus, the chair of the committee, for his approachable attitude and sharp questions that encouraged me to rethink my research without being demotivated. Rob van Nes and Sander van Cranenburgh, my supervisors at the TU Delft, who I have experienced to be very devoted with both my research and my well-being. Frank Hofman, my supervisor at Rijkswaterstaat, whose door was always open and who always took time for my questions. Noortje Groot, for the critical and extensive feedback on my written work, even after having switched to another employer. And last but not least, Jasper Willigers, my supervisor at Significance, for helping me out with all the errors that showed up in my estimation output and by sharing his broad knowledge on choice modelling. I would also like to express my gratitude to everyone else who has contributed to the content of my thesis. Aron Vaas, Paul van Merriënboer and Huub Dubbelman for sharing their experiences in the carsharing market during the interviews. Lucas Harms and Peter Jorritsma, from the KiM, for providing their data on carsharing and digging into their memories to answer most of my questions. Matthijs de Gier, from Kantar Public (formerly known as TNS NIPO), for collecting the data for the KiM and clarifying any questions I still had left. Friso Metz, for sharing the data on the number of shared cars per municipality. Moreover, thanks go to my colleagues at Significance and Rijkswaterstaat, who were found to be very approachable and helpful with providing any additional information. Last, I would like to thank my family and friends, for providing relaxation and diverting my attention from my graduation work. Special thanks go to Loran Tordoir, and not because I know this is the only part of this thesis he will ever read. He has been a great support, from the first day I set foot on the TU Delft campus, until now, waiting for me with a chilled bottle of champagne. Cheers! A. (Ank) van Paassen Delft, April 23, 2018 -v- -vi- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Carsharing is a growing phenomenon that has gained increased attention of both local and national policy makers, because it is believed to reduce congestion, car travel demand, parking pressure and emissions. Moreover, carsharing is one of the main ingredients of another hot topic: Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). The Ministry of Infrastructure & Environment (I&E) has already conducted several pilots to better understand how the MaaS concept could be succesfully implemented. Yet, much is unknown on how carsharing will impact the public environment towards the future. The believed positive effects of carsharing are currently based on case studies were carsharing participants are asked for their changed mobility behaviour. Such studies however do not take into account how fellow citizens respond to their carsharing neighbours and how this affects the total car ownership and car usage in the area. Moreover, knowledge is lacking on the the number of carsharing participants in the future. In current studies, future expectations are often based on an extrapolation of the experienced growth over the last few years, but this does not account for saturation in the carsharing market. Other studies base their conclusions on surveys in which people are asked for their potential carsharing participation under hypothetical circumstances, but here a hypothetical bias comes in. For urban planning practice, it is essential to gain a better understanding on carsharing saturation rates and the impact of carsharing on the future public environment in terms of car ownership and travel demand. Hence, the need has arised to incorporate carsharing in strategic travel demand models. The aim of this study is therefore to explore how carsharing can be incorporated into strategic travel demand models, where the Dutch national transport model (LMS) is used as a case study. Carsharing is here defined as the repeated and consecutive joint use of motor vehicles by agreement between natural persons and a provider or between natural persons themselves originated from more than one household (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten, 2008). In order to use a shared car, a person has an agreement with a carsharing organization, in the form of a (paid) carsharing membership. Earlier studies towards carsharing have shown that only a limited part of the population is willing to participate in carsharing and the shared car is thus only accessible for a limited group op people. Therefore, in this thesis carsharing modelling is split in two parts: (1) modelling carsharing participation and (2) modelling the effect of carsharing participation on the total travel demand. The latter part is left for future research and this thesis thus focusses on the modelling of carsharing participation. Literature has suggested that causal interrelations exist among carsharing participation and car ownership and therefore this thesis approaches carsharing participation modelling jointly with car ownership modelling. Hence, the research objective is formulated as follows: 1. Understand what factors affect carsharing participation by estimating choice models; 2. Specify how a joint model for carsharing participation and car ownership could be incorporated in the Dutch national transport model (LMS). This research thus encloses a design task and hence the final product is a design of an empirical choice model. The empirical model for the LMS is designed in three steps, see also Figure 1. First, a conceptual model is designed that is based on knowledge gained from literature and interviews with representatives of carsharing organizations. Next, the conceptual model is operationalized into an empirical model with the help of revealed preference data obtained from the carsharing monitor of TNS NIPO, which was commissioned by the KiM in 2014. This empirical model, referred to as the ‘best possible model’, shows how a joint model for car ownership and carsharing participation should ideally FIGURE 1: DESIGN PROCESS -vii- be formulated, given the data available. The best possible model is applied on various scenarios, to determine the impact of (potential) future developments on carsharing participation. Then, the position of a carsharing participation and car ownership model in the LMS is assessed, needed adaptions to the LMS and the best possible model are discussed and a second empirical model is constructed: the ‘LMS best possible model’. In the first part of this thesis, where literature is consulted and interviews are conducted, this thesis is focussed on business-to-consumer- (B2C) and peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing. B2C carsharing can be split in two types: one- way carsharing and round-trip carsharing. From the conceptual model onwards, the study is targeted on the modelling of round-trip carsharing only. Results Literature study has shown that one-way-, round-trip-, and P2P carsharing differ from each other in terms of operating area, parking possibilities, minimum rental periods, car access systems, costs structures and fleet variety. As a result of the differences, trip characteristics differ. One-way carsharing is mainly used for short distances as an alternative for public transport, P2P carsharing is used for trips often longer than a day and round- trip carsharing steers the middle course. Interviews and literature showed numerous factors that explain carsharing participation. According to the interviews, the choice to participate in carsharing rather than to purchase a car is primarily motivated by costs and ease (carefree), and strengthened by environmental concern or parking regulations. A cost comparison between car ownership and carsharing participation showed that carsharing is financially interesting up to a yearly mileage of circa 4000 km. According to literature, household density, population size, a single household composition, high education, good public transport accessibility, public transport usage and commuters by foot all relate positively to carsharing participation.