Vehicle Sharing is Becoming Mainstream Travel Option. Summit Addresses the Way Forward.

San Francisco, CA, September 22, 2013 --(PR.com)-- New forms of carsharing, bikesharing, ridesharing, and peer-to-peer transportation services are rapidly hitting the streets. Systems for providing and sharing rides are evolving in most major urban areas of the U.S. Can these shared-use mobility services reduce transportation costs significantly, cut down on the number of cars on the road, and slash congestion and pollution? These are a few of the questions which will be explored at the Shared-Use Mobility Summit (http://www.sharedusesummit.org/) at the San Francisco Financial District Hilton, October 10-11.

Organized by the University of California, Berkeley, Transportation Sustainability Research Center, the summit will bring together academics, advocates, entrepreneurs, policymakers, regulators, and government officials for two days of discussion on the promise and perils of extending the “sharing economy” to urban transportation networks.

“With carsharing, bikesharing, and ridesharing rolling out in more and more cities around the country, a lively transportation dialogue has begun about the legal and regulatory impacts and possible requirements for emerging sharing options,” noted summit organizer Susan Shaheen, who teaches in the engineering department at UC Berkeley and co-directs the Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC).

“The operators of many innovative services are not strictly commercial carriers, like taxis and buses,” said Shaheen; this leads to lawsuits and complaints about claims of unfair competition and categorizing nomenclature.

“We will address such issues at the summit and explore possible next steps for integrating shared- use mobility into future transportation policy and planning.”

The program will include sessions on the “nuts & bolts” of transportation sharing systems, the integration of these systems with public transit, and updates about the state of the shared-use mobility industry. Speakers include representatives of such well-known players as City CarShare, Zipcar, and Carma. A list of speakers and sponsors can be found below.

For information and registration, go to www.sharedusesummit.org (http://www.sharedusesummit.org/).

As of September 14th, confirmed speakers include (in alphabetical order):
Alain Ayotte, formerly of BIXI; Andrew Bata, MTA New York City Transit; Odile Beniflah, carpooling.com; Brad Biddle, Intel; Dave Brook, Consultant; Richard Bryce, Carma; Alison Cohen, Toole Design Group; Matt Christensen, Bikeshare.com; Carol Csanda, State Farm; Kevin Desmond, King County Metro Transit; Jennifer Dill, Professor at Portland State University and Director of the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium and the National Institute for Transportation and Communities; Bill Dossett, Nice Ride Minnesota; Jennifer Dotson, Ithaca CarShare; Wendy Duren, Arlington Transportation Partners; Dan Emerine, DC; Ivan de la Lanza, Mexico City; Sharon Feigon, Alternative Transportation for Chicagoland, Inc.; Larry Filler, LF Consulting; Ann Flemer, Metropolitan Transportation Commission: Natalie Foster, Peers; Guy Fraker, get2kno, Inc., AutonomouStuff, LLC; Lisa Gansky, author of the The Mesh; Allen Greenberg, Federal Highway Administration; David Goldberg, T4America; Art Guzzetti, American Public Transportation Association; Andre Haddad, RelayRides; Rick Hutchinson, City CarShare; Ryan Johnson, Enterprise Holdings; Michael Jones, Alta; David King, Columbia University; Gabe Klein, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Transportation; William Knapp, car2go; Barbara Laurenson, MTC; Elliot Martin, TSRC, UC Berkeley; Jon Martz, v-Ride; Kevin McLaughlin, AutoShare; Melissa McManon; Laura Melendy, UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies; Mark Norman, Zipcar; Timothy Papandreou, San Francisco MTA; Carly Paine, SFMTA; Sunil Paul, Sidecar; Jason Pavluchuk, Pavluchuk & Associates; Nicholas W. Ramfos, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; Ed Reiskin, Director of Transportation, San Francisco; Dedrick Roper, City CarShare; Ryan Rzepecki, Social Bicycles; Caroline Samponaro, Transportation Alternatives; Matt Sandstrom, Clean Energy Coalition; Eric Schreffler, TDM Consultant; Bodo Schwieger, Team Red, Germany; Karen Schkolnick, BAAQMD; Susan Shaheen, Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley, and Co-Director of TSRC; Josh Squire, Cyclehop; Paul Steinberg, Carma; Richard Steinberg, DriveNow; Dan Sturges, Project 100, Inc.; Arun Sundararajan, NYU Stern School of Business; Peter Torrellas, Siemens; Jeffrey Ulmer, RT Specialty; Gilles Vesco, City of Lyon, France; Kansas Waugh, Bar Area Bike Share; Geoff Wardle, Arts Center; John Williams, Scoville PR; Alan Woodland, CarSharing Association; Karen Worminghaus, eGo CarShare; Larry Yermack, Cubic Transportation Corporation; Marzia Zafar, California Public Utilities Commission; Sam Zaid, Getaround; Susan Zielinski, SMART; John Zimmer, Lyft.

Summit Sponsors And Partners
In addition to support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Shared-Use Mobility Summit sponsors and partners include:
American Public Transportation Association; Association for Commuter Transportation; Bay Area Air Quality Management District; Bikeshare.com; California Department of Transportation; Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority; Car2go; Carpooling.com; CarSharing Association; Cubic Transportation Systems; Cyclehop; DriveNow USA; Enterprise CarShare; Federal Highway Administration; get2kno, Inc.; Institute for Transportation and Development Policy; Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley; ITS America; ITS California; Lyft; mesh ventures, inc.; Metropolitan Transportation Commission; Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University; Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.; peers; Public Transit Future Meetup; Rent Centric Inc.; RidePal; Ridesharing Institute; Schneider Electric; Scoville Public Relations; Social Bicycles; Shareable; Smart Automobile; State Farm Insurance; teamred; TechAssure Association; Toole Design group; Toyota Motor Corporation; Transportation for America; Transportation Research Board of the National Academies; Transportation Sustainability Center; University of California Transportation Center at UC Berkeley; vRide; Zipcar