Not all ride-hailing trips are created equal: an examination of additional trips enabled by ride-hailing and the users who made them

Abstract

Ride-hailing services, which are offered by companies such as Uber and Lyft, have the potential to produce both benefits and negative externalities. In particular, ride-hailing can help improve mobility and accessibility, but can also contribute to increases in vehicle-miles traveled, congestion, and emissions. Induced ride-hailing trips (i.e., trips that would not have been made if ride-hailing was not available) represent somewhat of a middle ground between benefits and negative externalities. Studies on ride-hailing use have consistently found evidence of induced trips; however, relatively little is known about induced ride-hailing trips. This study uses data from a weeklong smartphone-based travel survey conducted in three metropolitan regions in California to examine the attributes of induced ride-hailing trips and the people who made said trips during the survey period. Descriptive analysis, hypothesis testing, and binary logistic regression are applied to gain insights into the attributes of induced ride-hailing trips and the factors influencing whether a person recorded an induced trip during the survey period. The results suggest that induced trips are more likely to correspond to discretionary and maintenance activities and more likely to be made using pooled ride-hailing services. Additionally, the members of groups that have traditionally experienced transportation disadvantage (including people with disabilities, people from lower-income households, and people from zero-vehicle households) were more likely to record an induced trip. This information can help inform efforts to improve the mobility and accessibility of disadvantaged groups and contribute to improvements in transit and paratransit services.