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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (14 results)

  • Article
Policy Briefs (2021)
In rural areas, cost-effective transit service is challenging to provide due to greater travel distances, lower population densities, and longer travel times than in cities. Access to a personal car is often essential to the quality of life for most residents, enabling them to readily access essential services. However, keeping one or two vehicles in reliable working order can be prohibitively expensive for low-income families. To address this issue, multiple organizations partnered to launch an electric vehicle (EV) carsharing pilot called Míocar in 2019. This non-profit service in the rural San Joaquin Valley of California differs from the dominant carsharing model of for-profit businesses serving affluent communities that already have high-quality transit. Míocar seeks to provide carsharing to price-sensitive populations with low transit access at a price point that is more affordable than owning a personal vehicle. The service currently has 27 EVs located at eight hubs throughout the San Joaquin Valley.
    Cover page: Electric Vehicle Carsharing is Helping to Fill Transit Gaps and Improve Mobility in Rural California
    • Article
    Policy Briefs (2022)
    Households in marginalized areas of rural California contend with difficult transportation challenges resulting from infrequent transit service, limited access to app-based rideshare services, and higher vehicle ownership costs associated with long travel distances. In 2014, researchers at the University of California, Davis partnered with the San Joaquin Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization to engage with stakeholders to understand the challenges facing rural residents and develop solutions for improving mobility while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One outcome of this work was the creation of an electric vehicle (EV) carsharing service known as Míocar. Míocar launched in 2019 and now has 27 vehicles located in eight affordable housing complexes in Tulare and Kern counties. Míocar provides a transportation option that helps to improve the mobility of individuals and households in marginalized communities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing reliance on conventional personal vehicles.
      Cover page: Rural Electric Vehicle Carsharing is Improving Household Mobility and Reducing Reliance on Personal Vehicles
      • Article
      ITS reports (2025)
      Transportation access is a significant issue in low-income, rural, and otherwise underserved communities in the US, with few affordable and reliable alternatives to car ownership. Carsharing is one promising alternative to improve access among marginalized communities. Grant programs in California have funded pilot electric carshare services. But little is known about the long-term financial sustainability of these services and how their costs and revenues compare those of transit. In this study, a financial model was used to estimate the net operating income (fare revenue minus costs) for Míocar, an electric carsharing service in marginalized suburban and rural communities. The estimated net operating income per month was −$1561, under current operating conditions, and ranged from −$1255 to −$1623 depending on simulated changes to fleet size, pricing, and usage rates. These negative net operating incomes correspond to a shortfall (or need for subsidies) of 68% to 92% of operational costs. Míocar could achieve a higher ratio of fare revenues to operational costs (13%) than existing transit (3 to 8%). To minimize required subsidies, electric carshare operators and prospective carshare communities should carefully consider hub locations (which can affect usage rates), the number of vehicles per hub, and the expected demand over time.
        Cover page: Understanding Demand, Revenues, and Costs of Electric Carsharing inU nderserved Rural and Suburban Areas
        • Article
        Policy Briefs (2025)
        Access to affordable and reliable transportation options is a significant issue in low-income, rural, and otherwise underserved communities across the United States. Carsharing is one promising option for households that are unable to afford a personal vehicle or have unreliable or insufficient access to a personal vehicle. California has developed multiple grant programs funding shared mobility start-ups (such as carsharing) in underserved communities. This funding is particularly beneficial in areas where private, for-profit carshare companies won’t or can’t operate.
          Cover page: Fares Alone Will Not Sustain the Long-Term Operations of Electric Vehicle Carsharing Programs in Underserved Communities
          • Article
          Research Reports (2022)

          In rural areas, cost-effective transit service is challenging due to greater travel distances, lower population densities, and longer travel times than in cities. As a result, the people who rely on public transit contend with infrequent and slow service, and keeping a sufficient number of personal vehicles in reliable working order can be prohibitively expensive for low-income families. UC Davis partnered with the eight San Joaquin Valley Metropolitan Planning Organizations to identify and support development of three innovative mobility pilot concepts for the region. The first pilot is an electric vehicle (EV) carsharing service known as Míocar, located in affordable housing complexes in eight rural communities in Tulare and Kern counties. The second is a volunteer ridesharing service, known as VOGO, which supplements existing transit services in transport-disadvantaged rural areas in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. The third is a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform that allows planning and payment for fixed and demand-responsive transit services, including VOGO, in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. These pilots seek to (a) provide improved access to destinations for individuals with limited transportation alternatives, (b) and achieve greenhouse gas reductions through mode shifts from traditional internal combustion vehicles to EVs, ridesharing, and fixed transit. This report presents the methods and results for “before” and “after” evaluations conducted by UC Davis researchers to assess the performance and impacts of each pilot. The evaluations incorporate service usage data including telematics and MaaS application data, and survey data collected from pilot participants, to assess the programs beginning with pilot launch (2019 and2020) until November 2021. The results provide insights into participant characteristics and barriers to transportation, travel behavior, trip planning activities, and the extent to which the pilots addressed the travel needs of their target populations region.

          View the NCST Project Webpage

            Cover page: A Before and After Evaluation of Shared Mobility Projects in the San Joaquin Valley
            • Article
            Policy Briefs (2022)

            People who live in rural areas in California face unique transportation challenges due to long travel distances, infrequent transit service, the cost of car ownership, and limited access to app-based rideshare services that are common in more populated urban centers. Over the past eight years, UC Davis has partnered with the eight San Joaquin Valley Metropolitan Planning Organizations to identify and support development of three innovative mobility pilot concepts for the region.

            Researchers at the University of California, Davis evaluated these three pilot programs using survey and service usage data collected from their launch dates in 2019 and 2020 through November 2021 to understand the participant characteristics and outcomes of each pilot. This policy brief summarizes the key findings from that research.

            View the NCST Project Webpage

              Cover page: Evaluating Pilot Approaches to Increase Rural Mobility
              • Article
              Research Reports (2025)

              While the United States has long supported basic needs of residents through social welfare programs, policies supporting affordable transportation for lower income individuals have been much more limited. Federal support for transportation includes subsidies to transit agencies and requirements to offer discounted fares to certain groups such as seniors and riders with disabilities, but income-qualified discounts are not required. This study explores opportunities for improving access to transportation affordable programs by gathering insights from existing income qualified transportation benefits. Researchers compare examples of these programs to design features of existing non-transportation benefits to characterize opportunities for increased coordination and standardization. Finally, as the U.S. has seen an increase in recent years of Universal Basic Mobility (UBM) pilots that provide flexible transportation funds, the study incorporates insights from UBM evaluations to understand how UBM design features may be useful to agencies who are pursuing transportation affordable discounts and subsidies. The results suggest that there is significant potential for income-qualified transportation program enrollment both for agencies that do not currently offer these benefits and for agencies that already offer them, and that inter-organizational coordination among stakeholders may be essential in implementing successful transportation affordable discounts or subsidies. Additionally, the structure of income-qualified transportation benefits may vary depending on agency resources. Finally, with transportation equity as growing priority for California and its transit agencies, program administrators may opt for programs with easy access and enrollment rather than those that create barriers to participation through strenuous application and verification procedures. 

              View the NCST Project Webpage

                Cover page: Survey and Analysis of Transportation Affordable Programs in California
                • Article
                ITS reports (2021)
                In rural areas, cost-effective transit service is challenging to provide due to greater travel distances, lower population densities, and longer travel times than in cities. The people who rely on public transit contend with infrequent and slow service. Access to a personal car is often essential to the quality of life for most residents, enabling them to more easily access work, health care, education, healthy food, and other essential services. However, keeping two (or sometimes even one) car in reliable working order can consume an estimated 22% to 56% of the household budget for low-income families in California. Rural residents often have lower incomes than their urban counterparts, and the most fuel-efficient vehicles, particularly electric vehicles (EVs), are often outside their financial reach. An EV carsharing pilot, called Míocar, was launched in August 2019 to explore the potential of a shared mobility service to offer a cost-effective mobility option for residents of rural disadvantaged communities and to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Affordable housing complexes host the round-trip EV carsharing hubs in southern San Joaquin Valley (CA) communities with low levels of intercity transit service and personal vehicles. The goals of the pilot program are (a) to provide carsharing at a price point that is more affordable than owning a personal vehicle to price-sensitive populations with low transit access; and (b) to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This report summarizes the data collected during the 10-month operational rampup of the Míocar service—the entire dataset links members and their service use data with results from member and post reservation surveys. The results provide initial insights into who, how, and why members are using Míocar.
                  Cover page: Early Results from an Electric Vehicle Carsharing Service in Rural Disadvantaged Communities in the San Joaquin Valley
                  • Article
                  ITS reports (2022)
                  Rural areas in California present unique transportation challenges associated with long travel distances, infrequent transit service, the cost of car ownership, and limited access to app-based rideshare services that are common to more populated urban centers. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, partnered with the eight San Joaquin Valley Metropolitan Planning Organizations to identify and support the development of innovative regional mobility pilot concepts, including an electric vehicle carsharing service known as Míocar. Míocar launched in August 2019 with roundtrip EV carsharing hubs in affordable housing complexes in the southern San Joaquin Valley. This study summarizes the data collected through a telephone survey with current Míocar users from January 2022 through March 2022. The survey asks users to reflect on their use of the service since they enrolled, and it builds upon past data collection efforts for this program by gathering detailed information on member characteristics, transportation needs and capabilities, and Míocar’s role as a transportation option for the users’ households. The results provide qualitative insights into members’ mobility challenges and considerations and the service’s impacts on user travel. Comparisons to existing carsharing programs suggest that Míocar is achieving similar impacts as other programs in some areas, such as reducing personal vehicle use, ownership, and associated greenhouse gas emissions. However, respondents emphasize its role in improving mobility within the rural region. The evaluation provides information for researchers to enhance future evaluations of rural carsharing, and findings may inform member recruitment, training, program design, and other efforts conducted by rural carsharing operators.
                    Cover page: Retrospective User Survey for a Rural Electric Vehicle Carsharing Pilot in California’s Central Valley
                    • Article
                    Research Reports (2023)

                    This report presents the results of the Ecosystem of Shared Mobility Services in the San Joaquin Valley (Ecosystem) pilot project. The project is part of California Climate Investments (CCI), a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities. As the grantee for this pilot project, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District implemented the pilot program by partnering and/or subcontracting with several local entities including, but are limited to: Sigala Inc.; UC Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies; Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC); Self-Help Enterprises, and MOVE. Funding for the Ecosystem pilot project provided by a grant from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) through the Car Sharing and Mobility Option Pilot Project solicitation. Research for the project was also supported by funding through the University of California via the Public Transportation Account and the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (Senate Bill 1) and the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) through the University Transportation Centers program.

                    View the NCST Project Webpage

                      Cover page: Ecosystem of Shared Mobility Services in the San Joaquin Valley
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