IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v148y2021icp481-495.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mobility-on-demand versus fixed-route transit systems: An evaluation of traveler preferences in low-income communities

Author

Listed:
  • Yan, Xiang
  • Zhao, Xilei
  • Han, Yuan
  • Hentenryck, Pascal Van
  • Dillahunt, Tawanna

Abstract

Emerging transportation technologies such as ridesourcing services (i.e. Uber, Lyft, and Via) are disrupting the transportation sector and transforming public transit. Some transit observers envision future public transit to be integrated systems with fixed-route services running along major corridors and ridesourcing servicing lower-density areas. A switch from a conventional fixed-route service model to this kind of integrated Mobility-on-Demand (MOD) transit system, however, may elicit varied responses from residents. This paper evaluates traveler preferences for a proposed integrated MOD transit system versus the existing fixed-route system, with a particular focus on disadvantaged travelers. We conducted a survey in two low-income localities, namely, Detroit and Ypsilanti, Michigan. A majority of survey respondents preferred a MOD transit system over a fixed-route one. Results of ordered logit models revealed a stronger preference for MOD transit among males, college graduates, and individuals who currently receive inferior transit services and have used Uber/Lyft before. By contrast, preferences varied little by age, income, race, or disability status. Survey results further imply that low technology self-efficacy can be a more serious barrier for many people to adopt MOD transit than lacking access to bank accounts, smartphones, or the internet. The most important benefit of MOD transit perceived by respondents is enhanced accessibility to destinations, whereas their major concerns include the need to actively request rides, possible transit-fare increases, and potential technological failures. Addressing the concerns of female riders and accommodating the needs of less technology-proficient individuals should be priorities for transit agencies that are considering MOD initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan, Xiang & Zhao, Xilei & Han, Yuan & Hentenryck, Pascal Van & Dillahunt, Tawanna, 2021. "Mobility-on-demand versus fixed-route transit systems: An evaluation of traveler preferences in low-income communities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 481-495.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:148:y:2021:i:c:p:481-495
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2021.03.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856421000835
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2021.03.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mulley, Corinne & Kronsell, Annica, 2018. "Workshop 7 report: The “uberisation” of public transport and mobility as a service (MaaS): Implications for future mainstream public transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 568-572.
    2. Clewlow, Regina R. & Mishra, Gouri S., 2017. "Disruptive Transportation: The Adoption, Utilization, and Impacts of Ride-Hailing in the United States," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt82w2z91j, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    3. Chao Wang & Mohammed Quddus & Marcus Enoch & Tim Ryley & Lisa Davison, 2014. "Multilevel modelling of Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) trips in Greater Manchester based on area-wide socio-economic data," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 589-610, May.
    4. Kim, Sungyop & Ulfarsson, Gudmundur F. & Todd Hennessy, J., 2007. "Analysis of light rail rider travel behavior: Impacts of individual, built environment, and crime characteristics on transit access," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 511-522, July.
    5. Hensher, David A., 2017. "Future bus transport contracts under a mobility as a service (MaaS) regime in the digital age: Are they likely to change?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 86-96.
    6. Caspar G. Chorus & Benedict G. C. Dellaert, 2012. "Travel Choice Inertia: The Joint Role of Risk Aversion and Learning," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(1), pages 139-155, January.
    7. Sabreena Anowar & Shamsunnahar Yasmin & Naveen Eluru & Luis Miranda-Moreno, 2014. "Analyzing car ownership in Quebec City: a comparison of traditional and latent class ordered and unordered models," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(5), pages 1013-1039, September.
    8. Shaheen, Susan PhD & Chan, Nelson, 2016. "Mobility and the Sharing Economy: Potential to Overcome First- and Last-Mile Public Transit Connections," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt8042k3d7, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    9. Felipe F. Dias & Patrícia S. Lavieri & Venu M. Garikapati & Sebastian Astroza & Ram M. Pendyala & Chandra R. Bhat, 2017. "A behavioral choice model of the use of car-sharing and ride-sourcing services," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1307-1323, November.
    10. Tommy Gärling & Kay Axhausen, 2003. "Introduction: Habitual travel choice," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 1-11, February.
    11. Yanbo Ge & Christopher R. Knittel & Don MacKenzie & Stephen Zoepf, 2016. "Racial and Gender Discrimination in Transportation Network Companies," NBER Working Papers 22776, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Shen, Yu & Zhang, Hongmou & Zhao, Jinhua, 2018. "Integrating shared autonomous vehicle in public transportation system: A supply-side simulation of the first-mile service in Singapore," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 125-136.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhu, Siying & Cai, Yutong & Wang, Mengtong & Wang, Hua & Meng, Qiang, 2023. "How will China–Singapore International Land–Sea Trade Corridor affect route choice behaviour? A discrete choice model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 11-22.
    2. Rico Krueger & Michel Bierlaire & Prateek Bansal, 2022. "A Data Fusion Approach for Ride-sourcing Demand Estimation: A Discrete Choice Model with Sampling and Endogeneity Corrections," Papers 2212.02178, arXiv.org.
    3. Ghimire, Subid & Bardaka, Eleni & Monast, Kai & Wang, Juan & Wright, Waugh, 2024. "Policy, management, and operation practices in U.S. microtransit systems," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 259-278.
    4. Andrzej Bąk & Elżbieta Nawrocka & Daria E. Jaremen, 2022. "“Sustainability” as a Motive for Choosing Shared-Mobility Services: The Case of Polish Consumers of Uber Services," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    5. Rich, Jeppe & Seshadri, Ravi & Jomeh, Ali Jamal & Clausen, Sofus Rasmus, 2023. "Fixed routing or demand-responsive? Agent-based modelling of autonomous first and last mile services in light-rail systems," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    6. Wang, Yiyuan & Shen, Qing, 2023. "An economic analysis of incorporating new shared mobility into public transportation provision," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 263-273.
    7. Yiyuan Wang & Qing Shen, 2024. "A latent class analysis to understand riders’ adoption of on-demand mobility services as a complement to transit," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 1043-1061, June.
    8. Xuemei Zhou & Guohui Wei & Yunbo Zhang & Qianlin Wang & Huanwu Guo, 2023. "Optimizing Multi-Vehicle Demand-Responsive Bus Dispatching: A Real-Time Reservation-Based Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zou, Zhenpeng & Cirillo, Cinzia, 2021. "Does ridesourcing impact driving decisions: A survey weighted regression analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-12.
    2. Yu, Haitao & Peng, Zhong-Ren, 2019. "Exploring the spatial variation of ridesourcing demand and its relationship to built environment and socioeconomic factors with the geographically weighted Poisson regression," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 147-163.
    3. Wong, Yale Z. & Hensher, David A. & Mulley, Corinne, 2020. "Mobility as a service (MaaS): Charting a future context," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 5-19.
    4. Riccardo Ceccato & Marco Diana, 2021. "Substitution and complementarity patterns between traditional transport means and car sharing: a person and trip level analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1523-1540, August.
    5. Shibayama, Takeru & Emberger, Günter, 2020. "New mobility services: Taxonomy, innovation and the role of ICTs," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 79-90.
    6. Oke, Jimi B. & Akkinepally, Arun Prakash & Chen, Siyu & Xie, Yifei & Aboutaleb, Youssef M. & Azevedo, Carlos Lima & Zegras, P. Christopher & Ferreira, Joseph & Ben-Akiva, Moshe, 2020. "Evaluating the systemic effects of automated mobility-on-demand services via large-scale agent-based simulation of auto-dependent prototype cities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 98-126.
    7. Qiao, Si & Yeh, Anthony Gar-On, 2021. "Is ride-hailing a valuable means of transport in newly developed areas under TOD-oriented urbanization in China? Evidence from Chengdu City," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    8. Wang, Hai & Yang, Hai, 2019. "Ridesourcing systems: A framework and review," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 122-155.
    9. Soria, Jason & Stathopoulos, Amanda, 2021. "Investigating socio-spatial differences between solo ridehailing and pooled rides in diverse communities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Aguilera-García, Álvaro & Gomez, Juan & Velázquez, Guillermo & Vassallo, Jose Manuel, 2022. "Ridesourcing vs. traditional taxi services: Understanding users’ choices and preferences in Spain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 161-178.
    11. Rick Grahn & Corey D. Harper & Chris Hendrickson & Zhen Qian & H. Scott Matthews, 2020. "Socioeconomic and usage characteristics of transportation network company (TNC) riders," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 3047-3067, December.
    12. Ong, Felita & Loa, Patrick & Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2024. "Ride-sourcing demand in Metro Vancouver: Looking through the lens of disability," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    13. Zgheib, Najib & Abou-Zeid, Maya & Kaysi, Isam, 2020. "Modeling demand for ridesourcing as feeder for high capacity mass transit systems with an application to the planned Beirut BRT," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 70-91.
    14. Pangbourne, Kate & Mladenović, Miloš N. & Stead, Dominic & Milakis, Dimitris, 2020. "Questioning mobility as a service: Unanticipated implications for society and governance," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 35-49.
    15. Zhang, Yufeng & Khani, Alireza, 2021. "Integrating transit systems with ride-sourcing services: A study on the system users’ stochastic equilibrium problem," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 95-123.
    16. Qian Duan & Xin Ye & Jian Li & Ke Wang, 2020. "Empirical Modeling Analysis of Potential Commute Demand for Carsharing in Shanghai, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    17. Hongli Xu & Hai Yang & Jing Zhou & Yafeng Yin, 2017. "A Route Choice Model with Context-Dependent Value of Time," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 536-548, May.
    18. Brown, Anne, 2022. "Not all fees are created equal: Equity implications of ride-hail fee structures and revenues," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 1-10.
    19. Tirachini, Alejandro & del Río, Mariana, 2019. "Ride-hailing in Santiago de Chile: Users’ characterisation and effects on travel behaviour," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 46-57.
    20. Vij, Akshay & Ryan, Stacey & Sampson, Spring & Harris, Susan, 2020. "Consumer preferences for on-demand transport in Australia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 823-839.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:148:y:2021:i:c:p:481-495. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.