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How are popular transportation and shared mobility related?
Popular transportation is, by definition, shared mobility. The Shared-Use Mobility Center broadly defines share mobility as:
“...transportation services and resources that are shared among users, either concurrently or one after another. This includes public transit; micromobility (bikesharing, scooter sharing); automobile-based modes (carsharing, rides on demand, and microtransit); and commute-based modes or ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling).”
The defining difference might be that “shared mobility” in high-income countries (a.k.a. “The Global North”) is primarily delivered by a central organization. It could be a ride-hailing or a bike-sharing technology platform, or it could be a public agency.
Setting aside government-run public transportation services, most shared mobility services in the Global North start with the provision of a technology platform that allows customers to book vehicles or hail rides via networked electronic devices. (Phones, tablets, personal computers.) Depending on the mode, the vehicles may be owned and operated or franchised by the company operating the tech platform. (For example, e-scooter sharing companies or car-sharing companies.) Or, the vehicles may be provided by individual owners who contract rides or users via the platform. (For example, ride-hailing or P2P car-sharing companies.) The service would not exist were it not for the tech platform.
Popular transportation predates shared mobility technology platforms. The platforms have deployed in low- and middle-income countries (a.k.a. “The Global South)—you can hail a boda boda or an ojek with an app—the users and providers can and do operate independent of the platforms.
Agile City Partners writes:
In the Global North, digital technology (and consequently, mobility data) is integral to operations of shared mobility. Private companies build the technology platform and recruit new gig workers or drivers (and their cars) to their platform. Some shared services (like car sharing, and bike and scooter sharing) own the vehicles that they manage through digital platforms. While there were shared mobility services before the rise of the platform driven mobility companies, shared mobility services could not exist at scale without digital technology.
In the Global South, digital technology platforms are grafted on to existing informal transportation systems already in operation. There were boda bodas in East Africa and okadas in West Africa before the rise of the ride-hail apps for two-wheelers like SafeBoda and Gokada. There were ojeks in Indonesia and motosais in Thailand before the rise of Gojek and Grab. There were passenger three-wheelers in South Asia and Southeast Asia before the rise of call-centers and then app-based hailing services such as Uber and Ola.
(Note that this difference does not hold for bike and scooter-sharing services or car-based ride-hail services. These services did not widely exist in Asia or Latin America before the app-based services arrived.)