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Here are five things to know about the study, which Shaheen presented Tuesday at the Automated Vehicles Symposium in San Francisco:

How?

The researchers surveyed members in San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary and Washington, D.C., then compared each user’s answers with a year’s worth of user data provided by Car2Go. That approach, according to Shaheen, “enabled us to apply a very critical lens toward examining the responses of individuals from the survey.” In other words, if someone claimed he or she sold a car because they were using Car2Go, but their records show they used the service less than once a month, that answer was eliminated.

A total of 1,010 Vancouver Car2Go members were included in the survey. Car2Go provided a small portion of funding for this research, but the biggest chunk came from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. The City of Seattle also pitched in money and other resources.

What were the results?

Vancouver saw the largest overall impact on the number of private cars on the road, with an estimated reduction of 8,243 vehicles in 2015. For every Car2Go vehicle on Vancouver’s streets, about two members said they had sold their vehicles and another seven said they had postponed buying a car. Overall, the researchers estimate that Vancouver members reduced vehicle travel by as much as 60 million kilometres in a year, which may have prevented the release of 10,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.