The dominance of road transport, both on passenger and freight movements, has reached alarming levels for society due to their negative environmental impacts as well as societal and economic costs. To reverse this trend, many approaches have been applied, but without significant effects on mobility patterns and on the sustainability of the transport system. Fairly promising results have recently been reported in Europe with car-sharing. This research confirms, as hypothesized by prior research, that car sharing contributes to a more efficient and rational mobility (with lower number of vehicles per capita among members, lower demand for parking space, lower fixed costs and a complement to public transport). Additionally to the lower consumption of physical and economic resources, car sharing can also contribute to the reduction of energy and environmental impacts (added to the direct ones from the changes on vehicle ownership and usage patterns). A case study was carried out in Lisbon, Portugal, to estimate car sharing impacts and the effects of a possible technology change. The results demonstrate that those benefits can represent reductions of 35 or 47% in terms of energy consumption and 35 and 65% for CO2 emissions, if a shift to Hybrid vehicles (Sc.1) or to Electric vehicles (Sc.2) is promoted, respectively. The impacts of reducing vehicle ownership, in a 1 to 6 ratio, due to the implementation of car-sharing were also estimated. Additionally, a simplified fleet based NPV analysis was performed and the break-even point for which the system would become economically feasible was estimated. The most relevant variables influencing the economic feasibility of the car sharing the cost related variables, reducing the break-even timeframe from 36 to 57%

Introduction European Commission has promoted actions and policies with the aim of reducing the negative impacts on traffic and environment caused by city logistics. One increasingly popular measure is the use of cargo bikes in city logistics due to their improved energy efficiency, lower emissions and lower traffic disturbance. The paper assess the impacts of electric cargo bikes, from a public policy perspective and, simultaneously, taking into account variables that cover the urban logistics operators’ interests. Under a public policy perspective, the considered variables evaluate mobility, environmental impacts and indirectly, the quality of life. In terms of private interests, the studied variables cover costs levels (operation and driving) and efficiency. This evaluation aims at clarifying if electric cargo bikes can indeed represent a sustainable mobility policy under specific boundaries, by leading to better environmental and social impacts and not hindering the operational efficiency of urban logistics activities. Methods For that purpose, the measurement of the traffic key performance indicators, as well as of Well-to-Wheel energy and CO₂ emission savings is performed allowing to quantify mobility, reliability and operational efficiency indicators. Several scenarios related with the introduction of electric cargo bikes replacing conventional vans were assessed and evaluated in order to compare the effects of different market shares in the mobility of the studied area located in Porto (Portugal). Acknowledging the short distance range of cargo bikes, the simulation is carried out and an estimation of the total transportation cost is performed, which includes transport and emission cost when the vehicle is driving, emission cost while idling and labor cost. Results The main conclusion is that cargo bikes can replace up to 10% of the conventional vans in areas with maximum linear distances of about 2 km, without changing the overall network efficiency. Additionally, urban logistics WTW CO₂ emission impacts can be reduced by up to 73%, which represents 746 kg of CO₂ avoided emissions. Furthermore, the introduction of electric cargo bikes in urban logistics activities has positive effects for all the vehicle categories and all the scenarios, reaching up to 25% of reductions in external costs. Conclusions As a result, cargo bikes implemented at the appropriate spatial scale within the city can be a sustainable solution for urban logistics, depending on a prior delimitation of the conditions and adequate implementation strategy, to guarantee that it actually leads to improvements in terms of mobility, environment, energy, running costs and externalities.