Ride-hailing and (dis)Advantage: Perspectives from Users and Non-users

Abstract

The introduction of ride-hailing in cities of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) remains a relatively new topic in regional research and a contentious issue in local policy and practice. Evidence regarding users and how do they differ from non-users is scarce, and there is little documented evidence about how user preferences and perceptions may influence the uptake of ride-hailing. This paper uses primary data from a survey collected from users and non-users of ride-hailing in Bogotá during 2019 to develop a Latent Class Analysis Model (LCA) to identify clusters of users and non-users of ride-hailing. The paper builds on results from the LCA to reflect on conditions of advantage and disadvantage that may make ride-hailing attractive and beneficial for particular social groups. The paper identifies four unique clusters: Carless middle-income ride-hailing users, Disadvantaged non-users, Young middle-class non-users, and Advantaged ride-hailing users. The research uses data on such perceptions to draw insights that may inform commercial and policy decisions. Findings suggest that issues such as the perception of legality in ride-hailing and aversion to crime play a significant role in the choice of such a mode in the context of Bogotá, particularly among socially and transport advantaged users.

The Potential for Ride-hailing Integration with Mass Transit Systems: A choice Experiment in Latin America

“…These services are authorized to operate in Mexico City. In Colombian cities, however, regulation and operation of TNCs remains undefined, with constant conflicts among owners and operators of conventional taxis, users, and regulators (Oviedo et al, 2021a(Oviedo et al, , 2021bScholl et al, 2022). For example, in December 2019, Uber was banned from the country for not following regulations.…”

Can Ride-Hailing Services Reduce Car Ownership?: Lessons from 3 Latin-American Cities

“…The ideal scenario would be one in which people walk, cycle, or use public transit for their regular trips, and rely on ride-hailing for the least frequent trips that cannot be completed in the aforementioned alternatives (Oviedo et al, 2021;Sabogal-Cardona et al, 2021). This would allow people to avoid owning a car.…”

Disrupting Personal (In)Security? The Role of Ride-Hailing Service Features, Commute Strategies, and Gender in Mexico City

“…Research on ride-hailing has placed attention on many issues such as the determinants of adoption (Alemi et al, 2019(Alemi et al, , 2018Dias et al, 2017;Oviedo et al, 2021), impact on congestion (Tirachini and Gomez-Lobo, 2019), and substitution or complementarity with public transit (Habib, 2019;Hall et al, 2018). With works coming now from developed and developing countries, there is some interest in the relationship between ride-hailing and crime.…”

“…A recent study in the cities of Accra and Kumasi in Ghana (Acheampong, 2021) with 548 qualitative non-probabilistic surveys identified the following seven factors affecting passengers' perceptions of safety and security when using ride-hailing: identification of the (driver and vehicle), trip trackability and traceability, fear of exposure to malicious and criminal actions by drivers or other passengers, privacy (lone travel), (dis)trust in app security features, emergency use, and driver behavior. A study in Bogotá (Oviedo et al, 2021) using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) shows that the perception of whether ride-hailing operation is legal or not as well as perception of crime have an effect on the decision users make on using or not the service. One of the few studies of ride-hailing in Mexico City (Sabogal-Cardona et al, 2021) using data from the 2017 Transport Household Survey calls the attention into the gendered dimensions of ride-hailing.…”