Eliciting preferences of TNC users and drivers: Evidence from the United States

Abstract

Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) are changing the transportation ecosystem, but microdecisions of drivers and users need to be better understood to assess the system-level impacts of TNCs. In this regard, we contribute to the literature by estimating a) individuals' preferences of being a rider, a driver, or a non-user of TNC services; b) preferences of ridehailing users for ridepooling; c) TNC drivers' choice to switch to vehicles with better fuel economy, and also d) the drivers' decision to buy, rent or lease new vehicles with driving for TNCs being a major consideration. We use a unique sample (N= 11,902) of the U.S. population residing in TNC-served areas. Elicitation of drivers' preferences using a large sample is the key feature of this study. The population-weighted statistical analysis indicates that ridehailing services are mainly attracting personal vehicle users as riders, without substantially affecting demand for transit. Moreover, around 10% of ridehailing users reported postponing the purchase of a new car due to the availability of TNC services. Using a multinomial logistic regression, we find that that the likelihood of being a TNC user increases with the increase in age for someone younger than 44 years, but the pattern is reversed post 44 years. This change in direction of the marginal effect of age is insightful as the previous studies have reported a linear negative association. Moreover, older ridehailing users with higher household vehicle ownership who live in suburban areas are less likely to pool rides. On the supply side, 65% of TNC drivers who work daily indicated that driving for TNCs was a consideration in vehicle purchase decisions. We also find that households with postgraduate drivers who drive daily and live in metropolitan regions are more likely to switch to fuel-efficient vehicles. These findings can inform transportation planners and TNCs in developing policies to encourage ridepooling and to improve the average fuel economy of the TNC fleet.

Adoption of Exclusive and Pooled TNC Services in Singapore and the US

“…They found that younger and unmarried individuals reported significantly higher rates of pooling; whereas, there were no statistically significant differences by gender or household income bracket. Other studies of TNC users in the metropolitan U.S. and Dallas, TX corroborate that the use of pooling decreases with the age of the TNC user (Lavieri & Bhat, 2019;Bansal, et al, 2019), but some have found that this relationship between age and propensity for pooling varies by other sociodemographic characteristics such as education level and gender (Bansal, et al, 2019). Studies have also found mixed results when it comes to the relationship between household car ownership and preference of a TNC user to pool, with some noting a positive (Sarriera, et al, 2017) and others a negative relation (Bansal, et al, 2019).…”

“…Finally, a number of studies have compared car ownership between users and non-users of TNC services. Nationally, not owning a car is highly related to TNC use (Schaller, 2018;Smith, 2016) and as many as 10% of TNC users report postponing the purchase of a new car (Bansal, et al, 2019, Hampshire, et al, 2018. In San Francisco and Boston, the proportion of TNC users that come from zero-car households was found to be much higher than the metropolitan region (Rayle, et al, 2016, Gehrke, Felix, & Reardon, 2018.…”

“…One reason for this may be that dynamically pooled services (like UberPOOL and Lyft Shared) remain available in only a limited number of cities in the U.S. This also helps explain why living in metropolitan areas increases the odds of a TNC user to pool compared to living in suburban areas (Lavieri & Bhat, 2019;Bansal, et al, 2019).…”

Usage and User Characteristics—Insights from MOIA, Europe’s Largest Ridepooling Service

“…As a consequence, the service could be affordable for a broader mass of travelers-whereas ridehailing is currently mainly used by young, well-educated urbanites (cf. [16,[25][26][27]. Spurlock et al [28] already provide evidence that "low-to middle-income people [...] adopted pooled ride-hailing" [28] (p. 39), whereas non-pooled ride-hailing is rather used by those with higher income.…”

Role of Attitudes in Transit and Auto Users’ Mode Choice of Ridesourcing

“…Second, it is of particular interest to explore how these two groups (transit users and auto users) might have different attitudes and preferences toward mobility options, and how their attitudes may affect their mode choice toward ridesourcing options. While the literature has indicated that psychological constructs, such as attitudes, perceptions, and desires, have considerable impacts on individuals' mode choice behavior, few papers have investigated the impacts of attitudes on travelers' mode choice in the context of ridesourcing (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26).…”