Many studies have shown that car sharing can reduce the transportation costs for a large segmentof the population. Car sharing also reduces the number of private vehicles on the road becausemembers do not purchase their own car. However, the traditional car sharing business model isdifficult to scale geographically to neighborhoods with lower population densities because theoperator must bear the upfront fixed cost of purchasing or leasing the vehicles in the fleet.In contrast to traditional car sharing, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) car sharing allows car owners toconvert their personal vehicles into shared cars which can be rented to other drivers on a short-term basis. This model leverages the fact that most privately owned vehicles sit idle over 90% ofthe day. Peer-to-Peer car sharing alleviates upfront costs, and thus scales more economically thantraditional car sharing to lower density neighborhoods. As a result P2P car sharing providesgreater potential for car accessibility than traditional car sharing. There are several new servicecompanies dedicated to P2P car sharing.In this paper, we develop a methodology to assess the market feasibility of P2P car sharing.Further, we apply the methodology to develop a case study of the P2P car sharing in Pittsburgh,PA. We find that the market for P2P car sharing is economically viable. However, uncertain andfragmented public policy and car insurance regimes threaten the growth and investment in P2Pcar sharing.
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