IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v143y2023icp72-82.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why do planners do what they do? and what are the implications? Guidance from on-demand ride-hailing policy in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Peace, Joseph
  • Sweet, Matthias
  • Scott, Darren M.

Abstract

On-demand ride-hailing is among the first in a new wave of technology-enabled transportation services to shape cities around the world. Due to ensuing disruption of established transportation systems, policymakers and planners have introduced various regulatory responses. This paper presents findings from expert interviews to understand the underlying processes associated with policymaking and planning for on-demand ride-hailing in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada. Interviews are conducted with planning practitioners and policymakers from local, regional, provincial, and private sector entities involved in regulating and planning related to on-demand ride hailing. Interviews are assessed using coding and thematic analysis and results suggest that both structural and experiential factors influence policymaking and planning in this area. Four themes emerge from interviews, highlighting that policymaking responses and processes stemmed from planners’ processes of perception, prioritization, role interpretation, and anticipation of broader impacts. Results point to a significant pattern of regulating on-demand ride-hailing using already available policy tools – implying that while on-demand ride-hailing may represent dramatic changes, policy responses represent only incremental shifts. Should other emerging transportation technologies follow a similar trajectory, they may also become integrated into existing structures as policymakers respond to future challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Peace, Joseph & Sweet, Matthias & Scott, Darren M., 2023. "Why do planners do what they do? and what are the implications? Guidance from on-demand ride-hailing policy in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 72-82.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:143:y:2023:i:c:p:72-82
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2023.09.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X23002500
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2023.09.012?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. Wenting Li & Amer Shalaby & Khandker Nurul Habib, 2022. "Exploring the correlation between ride-hailing and multimodal transit ridership in toronto," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 765-789, June.
    2. Sweet, Matthias N. & Scott, Darren M., 2021. "Shared mobility adoption from 2016 to 2018 in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area: Demographic or geographic diffusion?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    3. Li, Shengxiao(Alex) & Zhai, Wei & Jiao, Junfeng & Wang, Chao (Kenneth), 2022. "Who loses and who wins in the ride-hailing era? A case study of Austin, Texas," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 130-138.
    4. Alejandro Tirachini, 2020. "Ride-hailing, travel behaviour and sustainable mobility: an international review," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 2011-2047, August.
    5. Seidl, Timo, 2020. "The Politics of Platform Capitalism. A Case Study on the Regulation of Uber in New York," SocArXiv up9qz, Center for Open Science.
    6. Mirko Goletz & Francisco J. Bahamonde-Birke, 2021. "The ride-sourcing industry: status-quo and outlook," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(6), pages 561-576, August.
    7. Wood, Liza & Scott, Tyler A., 2022. "Transportation agencies as consumers and producers of science: The case of state, regional, and county transportation agencies in California," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 153-165.
    8. Crystal Legacy & David Ashmore & Jan Scheurer & John Stone & Carey Curtis, 2019. "Planning the driverless city," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 84-102, January.
    9. Zachary Spicer & Gabriel Eidelman & Austin Zwick, 2019. "Patterns of Local Policy Disruption: Regulatory Responses to Uber in Ten North American Cities," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 36(2), pages 146-167, March.
    10. Young, Mischa & Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2020. "Measuring when Uber behaves as a substitute or supplement to transit: An examination of travel-time differences in Toronto," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Qian, Lixian & Yin, Juelin & Huang, Youlin & Liang, Ya, 2023. "The role of values and ethics in influencing consumers’ intention to use autonomous vehicle hailing services," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    12. 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.
    13. Carolina Milhorance & Fanny Howland & Eric Sabourin & Jean-François Le Coq, 2022. "Tackling the implementation gap of climate adaptation strategies: understanding policy translation in Brazil and Colombia," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(9-10), pages 1113-1129, November.
    14. Hall, Jonathan D. & Palsson, Craig & Price, Joseph, 2018. "Is Uber a substitute or complement for public transit?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 36-50.
    15. Barajas, Jesus M. & Brown, Anne, 2021. "Not minding the gap: Does ride-hailing serve transit deserts?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    16. Smith, Göran & Sochor, Jana & Karlsson, I.C. MariAnne, 2018. "Mobility as a Service: Development scenarios and implications for public transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 592-599.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Maria Vega-Gonzalo & Álvaro Aguilera-García & Juan Gomez & José Manuel Vassallo, 2024. "Traditional taxi, e-hailing or ride-hailing? A GSEM approach to exploring service adoption patterns," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1239-1278, August.
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
    4. 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).
    5. 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.
    6. Xiaoxia Dong & Erick Guerra & Ricardo A. Daziano, 2022. "Impact of TNC on travel behavior and mode choice: a comparative analysis of Boston and Philadelphia," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1577-1597, December.
    7. Meredith-Karam, Patrick & Kong, Hui & Wang, Shenhao & Zhao, Jinhua, 2021. "The relationship between ridehailing and public transit in Chicago: A comparison before and after COVID-19," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    8. Lee, Yongsung & Lee, Bumsoo, 2022. "What’s eating public transit in the United States? Reasons for declining transit ridership in the 2010s," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 126-143.
    9. 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.
    10. Wenting Li & Amer Shalaby & Khandker Nurul Habib, 2022. "Exploring the correlation between ride-hailing and multimodal transit ridership in toronto," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 765-789, June.
    11. Li, Shengxiao(Alex) & Zhai, Wei & Jiao, Junfeng & Wang, Chao (Kenneth), 2022. "Who loses and who wins in the ride-hailing era? A case study of Austin, Texas," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 130-138.
    12. Hörcher, Daniel & Tirachini, Alejandro, 2021. "A review of public transport economics," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    13. Barajas, Jesus M. & Brown, Anne, 2021. "Not minding the gap: Does ride-hailing serve transit deserts?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Yan, Xiang & Liu, Xinyu & Zhao, Xilei, 2020. "Using machine learning for direct demand modeling of ridesourcing services in Chicago," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Nur Oktaviani Widiastuti & Muhammad Zudhy Irawan, 2024. "Ride-Hailing Preferences for First- and Last-Mile Connectivity at Intercity Transit Hubs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-20, April.
    16. 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).
    17. 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.
    18. Giller, James & Compostella, Junia & Iogansen, Xiatian & Young, Mischa & Circella, Giovanni, 2024. "Barriers to Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Transportation Part 1: Support to the Clean Miles Standard Policy Making," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt1x6982gf, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    19. Abdelwahab, Bilal & Palm, Matthew & Shalaby, Amer & Farber, Steven, 2021. "Evaluating the equity implications of ridehailing through a multi-modal accessibility framework," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    20. 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.

    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:143:y:2023:i:c:p:72-82. 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.