UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center

This paper examines the opportunities for addressing evacuations by  leveraging the sharing economy. To support this research, we use a mixed-method approach employing archival research of  sharing  economy actions, 24 high-ranking expert  interviews, and a survey of  individuals impacted by Hurricane Irma in 2017 (n=645).  Using these data, we contribute to the literature in four key ways. First, we summarize sharing economy company actions in 30 U.S. disasters. Second, we discuss results from 24 expert interviews  on  11  sharing  economy benefits  (ranging  from resource redundancy to positive company press coverage) and 13 limitations (ranging from driver   reliability   to   the   digital   divide).   Experts   included six   directors/executives   of   emergency/transportation  agencies,  two  executives  of  sharing  economy  companies,  and  eight  senior-level agency leaders. Third, we use these interviews, specifically negative opinions of the sharing economy, to inform our Hurricane Irma survey, which contributes empirical evidence of the feasibility of shared resources. Despite just 1.1% and 5.4% of respondents using transportation network  companies  (TNCs,  also  known  as  ridesourcing and  ridehailing)  and  homesharing  respectively during the Irma evacuation, some respondents were extremely willing to offer their own resources   including transportation   before   evacuating   (29.1%),   transportation   while   evacuating (23.6%), and shelter for free (19.2%) in a future disaster.  We also find spare capacity of  private  assets exists  for future  evacuations  with  just  11.1%  and  16%  of  respondents  without  spare seatbelts and beds/mattresses, respectively. Finally, we conclude with practice-ready policy recommendations for public  agencies  to  leverage shared  resources  including:  communication partnerships, surge flagging (i.e., identifying and reducing unfair price increases),  and community-based sharing systems