Two faces of car sharing: An exploration on the effect of car sharing on car accident

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of car sharing on urban traffic violence. Conducting differences-in-differences approach, we find that car sharing entry increases the number of urban car accident. Moreover, the effect varies by the types of car accident based on license year of attacking driver. After car sharing entry, the number of car accident by experienced drivers have been increased whereas those by inexperienced drivers didn’t change significantly. According to additional analysis using the number of car sharing zones as an alternative measure, we find that the impact of car sharing on the number of overall car accident and those from experienced driver are still positive and the number of car sharing zones has negative impact on the number of car accident by inexperienced drivers. Our findings contribute to sharing economy literature by focusing on car sharing and its societal impact. Implications for managers and policy makers are also suggested.