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The impact of ride-hailing on vehicle miles traveled

Author

Listed:
  • Alejandro Henao

    (University of Colorado Denver
    National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL))

  • Wesley E. Marshall

    (University of Colorado Denver)

Abstract

Ride-haling such as Uber and Lyft are changing the ways people travel. Despite widespread claims that these services help reduce driving, there is little research on this topic. This research paper uses a quasi-natural experiment in the Denver, Colorado, region to analyze basic impacts of ride-hailing on transportation efficiency in terms of deadheading, vehicle occupancy, mode replacement, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Realizing the difficulty in obtaining data directly from Uber and Lyft, we designed a quasi-natural experiment—by one of the authors driving for both companies—to collect primary data. This experiment uses an ethnographic and survey-based approach that allows the authors to gain access to exclusive data and real-time passenger feedback. The dataset includes actual travel attributes from 416 ride-hailing rides—Lyft, UberX, LyftLine, and UberPool—and travel behavior and socio-demographics from 311 passenger surveys. For this study, the conservative (lower end) percentage of deadheading miles from ride-hailing is 40.8%. The average vehicle occupancy is 1.4 passengers per ride, while the distance weighted vehicle occupancy is 1.3 without accounting for deadheading and 0.8 when accounting deadheading. When accounting for mode replacement and issues such as driver deadheading, we estimate that ride-hailing leads to approximately 83.5% more VMT than would have been driven had ride-hailing not existed. Although our data collection focused on the Denver region, these results provide insight into the impacts of ride-hailing.

Suggested Citation

  • Alejandro Henao & Wesley E. Marshall, 2019. "The impact of ride-hailing on vehicle miles traveled," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 2173-2194, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:transp:v:46:y:2019:i:6:d:10.1007_s11116-018-9923-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11116-018-9923-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Judd Cramer & Alan B. Krueger, 2016. "Disruptive Change in the Taxi Business: The Case of Uber," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 177-182, May.
    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. Donald Anderson, 2014. "“Not just a taxi”? For-profit ridesharing, driver strategies, and VMT," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(5), pages 1099-1117, September.
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