IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v102y2021icp1-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can sharing a ride make for less traffic? Evidence from Uber and Lyft and implications for cities

Author

Listed:
  • Schaller, Bruce

Abstract

The popularity of Uber and Lyft and advances in autonomous vehicle technology have spurred public interest in the potential of shared ride services to reduce traffic congestion, vehicle emissions and space devoted to parking. However, research has shown that long waiting times, circuitous routes and privacy concerns might lead most patrons to choose exclusive-ride services over shared services (ride-hail or autonomous), thus increasing rather than decreasing vehicle mileage.

Suggested Citation

  • Schaller, Bruce, 2021. "Can sharing a ride make for less traffic? Evidence from Uber and Lyft and implications for cities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1-10.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:102:y:2021:i:c:p:1-10
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.12.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X20309525
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.12.015?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. 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.
    2. Rayle, Lisa & Dai, Danielle & Chan, Nelson & Cervero, Robert & Shaheen, Susan, 2016. "Just a better taxi? A survey-based comparison of taxis, transit, and ridesourcing services in San Francisco," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 168-178.
    3. Rayle, Lisa & Dai, Danielle & Chan, Nelson & Cervero, Robert & Shaheen, Susan PhD, 2016. "Just A Better Taxi? A Survey-Based Comparison of Taxis, Transit, and Ridesourcing Services in San Francisco," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt60v8r346, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    4. Loeb, Benjamin & Kockelman, Kara M., 2019. "Fleet performance and cost evaluation of a shared autonomous electric vehicle (SAEV) fleet: A case study for Austin, Texas," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 374-385.
    5. Daniel J. Fagnant & Kara M. Kockelman, 2018. "Dynamic ride-sharing and fleet sizing for a system of shared autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 143-158, January.
    6. Circella, Giovanni & Alemi, Farzad & Tiedeman, Kate & Handy, Susan & Mokhtarian, Patricia, 2018. "The Adoption of Shared Mobility in California and Its Relationship with Other Components of Travel Behavior," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt1kq5d07p, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    7. Lavieri, Patrícia S. & Bhat, Chandra R., 2019. "Modeling individuals’ willingness to share trips with strangers in an autonomous vehicle future," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 242-261.
    8. Schwieterman, Joseph & Smith, C. Scott, 2018. "Sharing the ride: A paired-trip analysis of UberPool and Chicago Transit Authority services in Chicago, Illinois," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 9-16.
    9. Nicholas J. Klein & Michael J. Smart, 2017. "Car today, gone tomorrow: The ephemeral car in low-income, immigrant and minority families," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 495-510, May.
    10. Brown, Anne E., 2020. "Who and where rideshares? Rideshare travel and use in Los Angeles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 120-134.
    11. Shaheen, Susan PhD, 2018. "Shared Mobility: The Potential of Ride Hailing and Pooling," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt46p6n2sk, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    12. Circella, Giovanni & Matson, Grant & Alemi, Farzad & Handy, Susan, 2019. "Panel Study of Emerging Transportation Technologies and Trends in California: Phase 2 Data Collection," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt35x894mg, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    13. Bösch, Patrick M. & Becker, Felix & Becker, Henrik & Axhausen, Kay W., 2018. "Cost-based analysis of autonomous mobility services," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 76-91.
    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. André Palma & Lucas Javaudin & Patrick Stokkink & Léandre Tarpin-Pitre, 2024. "Ride-sharing with inflexible drivers in the Paris metropolitan area," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 963-986, June.
    2. Julio César dos Santos & Paulo Ribeiro & Ricardo Jorge Silva Bento, 2023. "A Review of the Promotion of Sustainable Mobility of Workers by Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Liu, Hao & Devunuri, Saipraneeth & Lehe, Lewis & Gayah, Vikash V., 2023. "Scale effects in ridesplitting: A case study of the City of Chicago," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Adam Millard-Ball & Liwei Liu & Whitney Hansen & Drew Cooper & Joe Castiglione, 2023. "Where ridehail drivers go between trips," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 1959-1981, October.
    5. Saxena, Aditya & Gupta, Vallary, 2023. "Carpooling: Who is closest to adopting it? An investigation into the potential car-poolers among private vehicle users: A case of a developing country, India," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 11-20.
    6. Wenyuan Zhou & Xuanrong Li & Zhenguo Shi & Bingjie Yang & Dongxu Chen, 2023. "Impact of Carpooling under Mobile Internet on Travel Mode Choices and Urban Traffic Volume: The Case of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, April.
    7. 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).
    8. Zhang, Zhaolin & Zhai, Guocong & Xie, Kun & Xiao, Feng, 2022. "Exploring the nonlinear effects of ridesharing on public transit usage: A case study of San Diego," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    9. Jason Soria & Shelly Etzioni & Yoram Shiftan & Amanda Stathopoulos & Eran Ben-Elia, 2022. "Microtransit adoption in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a choice experiment with transit and car commuters," Papers 2204.01974, arXiv.org.
    10. Tian, Guang & Ewing, Reid & Li, Han, 2023. "Exploring the influences of ride-hailing services on VMT and transit usage – Evidence from California," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    11. Paolo Delle Site & André de Palma & Samarth Ghoslya, 2021. "Social optimality and stability of matchings in peer-to-peer ridesharing," THEMA Working Papers 2021-17, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    12. Gödde, Jan & Ruhrort, Lisa & Allert, Viktoria & Scheiner, Joachim, 2023. "User characteristics and spatial correlates of ride-pooling demand – Evidence from Berlin and Munich," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    13. Loa, Patrick & Ong, Felita & Hawkins, Jason & Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2023. "Unravelling the relationship between ride-sourcing services and conventional modes in the city of Toronto: A stated preference study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 209-220.
    14. Ho, Shirley J. & Chang, Hung-Wei, 2022. "Impacts of sharing business on production, sales, and rental markets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    15. Fulman, Nir & Marinov, Maria & Benenson, Itzhak, 2023. "Investigating occasional travel patterns based on smartcard transactions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 152-166.
    16. Ong, Felita & Loa, Patrick & Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2024. "Is it the trip or the trip-maker? Modelling factors influencing the demand induced by the availability of ride-sourcing services in Metro Vancouver," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 110-119.
    17. Steven E. Shladover, 2022. "Opportunities, Challenges, and Uncertainties in Urban Road Transport Automation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-19, February.
    18. André de Palma & Lucas Javaudin & Patrick Stokkink & Léandre Tarpin-Pitre, 2021. "Modelling Ridesharing in a Large Network with Dynamic Congestion," THEMA Working Papers 2021-16, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    19. Loa, Patrick & Hossain, Sanjana & Liu, Yicong & Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2022. "How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the use of ride-sourcing services? An empirical evidence-based investigation for the Greater Toronto Area," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 46-62.
    20. Zhang, Kenan & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2022. "Mitigating traffic congestion induced by transportation network companies: A policy analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 96-118.

    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. Loa, Patrick & Hossain, Sanjana & Liu, Yicong & Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2022. "How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the use of ride-sourcing services? An empirical evidence-based investigation for the Greater Toronto Area," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 46-62.
    2. Dean, Matthew D. & Kockelman, Kara M., 2021. "Spatial variation in shared ride-hail trip demand and factors contributing to sharing: Lessons from Chicago," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Ghazaleh Azimi & Alireza Rahimi & Xia Jin, 2022. "Exploring the attitudes of Millennials and Generation Xers toward ridesourcing services," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1765-1799, December.
    4. Xu, Yiming & Yan, Xiang & Liu, Xinyu & Zhao, Xilei, 2021. "Identifying key factors associated with ridesplitting adoption rate and modeling their nonlinear relationships," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 170-188.
    5. 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).
    6. Zhang, Kenan & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2022. "Mitigating traffic congestion induced by transportation network companies: A policy analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 96-118.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Alejandro Tirachini, 2020. "Ride-hailing, travel behaviour and sustainable mobility: an international review," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 2011-2047, August.
    12. Sörensen, Leif & Bossert, Andreas & Jokinen, Jani-Pekka & Schlüter, Jan, 2021. "How much flexibility does rural public transport need? – Implications from a fully flexible DRT system," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 5-20.
    13. Wang, Sicheng & Smart, Michael, 2020. "The disruptive effect of ridesourcing services on for-hire vehicle drivers’ income and employment," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 13-23.
    14. Wang, Hai & Yang, Hai, 2019. "Ridesourcing systems: A framework and review," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 122-155.
    15. Liu, Hao & Devunuri, Saipraneeth & Lehe, Lewis & Gayah, Vikash V., 2023. "Scale effects in ridesplitting: A case study of the City of Chicago," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    16. Loa, Patrick & Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2021. "Examining the influence of attitudinal factors on the use of ride-hailing services in Toronto," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 13-28.
    17. Gurumurthy, Krishna Murthy & Kockelman, Kara M., 2021. "Impacts of shared automated vehicles on airport access and operations, with opportunities for revenue recovery: Case Study of Austin, Texas," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    18. Vignon, Daniel & Yin, Yafeng & Ke, Jintao, 2023. "Regulating the ride-hailing market in the age of uberization," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    19. 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).
    20. 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.

    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:trapol:v:102:y:2021:i:c:p:1-10. 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/30473/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.