Ride-hailing platforms are shaping the future of mobility, but for whom?

Abstract

Claiming that ride-hailing companies have disrupted the transportation sector is an understatement. The ability and vision of companies, such as Uber and Lyft, to harness smartphones’ built-in GPS technologies, provide real-time information about wait times, and facilitate cashless transactions has enabled them to effectively compete with the taxi industry, and potentially capture a sizeable share of the ridership of other modes as well. RH services are now increasingly being recognized as an accepted transportation service within cities, and have rapidly positioned themselves among the most valuable companies within the transportation sector. Albeit a relatively new field of research, studies on this novel mode of travel have mostly focused on its impacts upon the transportation sector, and on the regulatory and policy frameworks that should be implemented to either encourage or deter its usage. To date, not much work has been done to determine who actually benefits from RH and to understand the equity concerns that it may engender. In this chapter, we explore these largely unaddressed concerns by situating ride-hailing within the well-established transport equity literature that has long focussed on disparities in access and mobility between different social, economic, and demographic groups. This allows us to elaborate on the potentially restrictive nature of RH for many segments of the population. Once unveiled, these equity concerns will shape our discussion and inform our recommendations for an agenda to research equity concerns vis-a-vis ride-hailing.

K-Prototypes Segmentation Analysis on Large-Scale Ridesourcing Trip Data

“…Ridesourcing was found to be an attractive alternative to taxis, however, there still remains a role for taxis in the transportation system as they remain competitive in highly dense areas during peak commuting hours. The substitution of taxis for ridesourcing also (though unintended) led to improved mobility equity in struggling communities as it is an option for those who do not possess bank accounts, credit cards, or smartphones ( 37 ).…”

Measuring when Uber behaves as a substitute or complement to transit: An examination of travel-time differences in Toronto

“…We also removed 69 RH trips from our dataset as they did not have viable transit alternatives and could therefore not be included in the travel-time difference analysis, but recognize that these are also likely filling gaps in particularly poor transit service and including them in our analysis would have increased the proportion of supplementary trips. This of course, is assuming that transit passengers can afford to use RH services, as these have been characterized as prohibitive in the past (Young and Farber, 2019b).…”

Ride-hailing apps and equity: an accessibility study in Porto Alegre/RS

“…Such aspect can be aligned with the uncertainty generated by "surge pricing" (a method to, in theory, balance supply and demand and explore peak times and times of greatest need, such as on rainy days). Likewise, the deliberate exclusion of specific regions of cities also raises questions about the inclusive nature of this service (Young and Farber, 2019;Furtado et al, 2020).…”