Use of Exclusive and Pooled Ridehailing Services in Three Mexican Cities

Abstract

The global expansion of ridehailing platforms has been accompanied by a diversification of service offerings as platforms fit within new urban contexts. While ridehailing has been of great interest to transportation researchers, analysis of its adoption and use in developing cities that differentiates between service offerings is lacking. To help address this knowledge gap, this study analyzes primary survey data collected from frequent users of the DiDi Chuxing ridehailing platform in three Mexican cities: Mérida, Toluca de Lerdo, and Aguascalientes. It investigates how ridehailing fits into the travel behavior of its users, explicitly differentiating between express (exclusive) and comparte (pooled) services. Findings were that (i) frequent use of ridehailing is positively correlated with use of public transport—city-run and privately-operated buses—and taxi, but negatively correlated with use of private car and motorcycle; and (ii) ridehailing trips are more likely to substitute public transport and taxi trips, but that the mode substitution depends on the service offering, with high substitutability between express and comparte. This degree of substitutability suggests that there is potential to encourage ridehailing users to pool trips, increasing the occupancy rate of ridehailing vehicles and reducing their negative impacts on congestion. Among the many factors involved in choosing between exclusive and pooled services, study participants rated safety, travel time, travel time reliability, and price as key determinants, with a highly elastic relation between travel time and price. These results inform efforts by urban transportation policymakers and ridehailing operators to encourage pooling in the Latin American context.

Not my usual trip: Ride-hailing characterization in Mexico City

“…The results indicate that ride-hailing has decreased accidents and fatalities for all users, but mainly for female passengers, as well as among male drivers working at night. Finally, recent research in three Mexican cities (Mérida, Toluca de Lerdo, and Aguascalientes) focusing on exclusive and pooled services and using descriptive statistics from a survey to users of a Transportation Network Company operating in the country (Moody et al, 2021), shows that the share of males (67.7%) using express services is higher than the share of females (32.3%). Despite the handful of studies that have findings regarding how gender interplays with ride-hailing adoption, very few studies explore the role of gender and ride-hailing usage in depth in the Latin American or developing country context.…”

Female Consumption Drivers Associated With Ride-Hailing in Brazilian Capitals

“…In the blue circle, the variables of a technological nature are observed, indicating that they belong to the 3 dimensions. The impact and importance of the technological characteristics of the offer and its ordering form are corroborated by Rangel et al, 2021;Shi et al, 2021. In turn, the reduced price and the expectation of benefits (red circle) indicate the utilitarian and individual character of the use, that is, the personal advantages associated with the cost are important drivers of use, which is corroborated by Moody et al, 2021;Violin, 2021a. Such elements distinguish this offer of public transportation modes, which has in its characterization price, time, boarding place and other passengers as variables that cannot be defined by consumers. This inference is echoed in studies such as those developed by the Fia Foundation; CAF, 2017 and Costa et al, 2021 and appear as relevant among the four use motivators listed above.…”

“…The propensity of the population to avail of ride-hailing services stands out, whether in developed (Lavieri ;Bhat, 2019) or developing countries (Moody et al, 2021), indicating that it is a worldclass phenomenon, however, a limitation to be overcome is centered on the fact that a substantial part of the studies present only descriptive factors in their context of analysis, not establishing correlations with elements underlying the decision-making process to consume the service, such as the motivators of use -Work, Leisure, Social Obligations and Distinct Responsibilities -(Soto Villagrán, 2019) associated with periods of travel (morning, afternoon, night and dawn), pointing to a gap to be filled.…”

“…The generation of an Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis model with subsequent Principal Component Analysis allows comparison of the results with robust studies carried out, for example, in Spain (Aguilera-García et al , 2022); Mexico (Moody et al, 2021); United States (LaValle, 2020); Chile (Lagos, 2019);Brazil (Colodetti;Melo, 2020); China (Liu et al, 2022); Peru (Martinez et al, 2018) among others, signaling progress in the field of theory by revealing the inducers of female consumption.…”

Strangers On This Road We Are On: A Literature Review of Pooling in On-Demand Mobility Services

“…In the descriptive analysis of 2019 survey data of California metropolitan areas, those who used TNCs at least once a week reported being more likely to consider pooling options from TNCs and engage in more multimodal trips (using a combination of TNCs and public transit to complete a trip) ( 1 ). A descriptive analysis of survey data of DiDi ridesourcing users in three Mexican cities during 2020 found that frequent use of ridesourcing is positively associated with public transit and privately operated buses, with important factors being safety, driver experience, and estimated travel time ( 47 ).…”