IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03994955.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Intercity ridesharing to the rescue: Capacity flexibility and price stability of BlaBlaCar during the 2018 French railway strike

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy Yu-Cheong Yeung
  • Dianzhuo Zhu

    (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

The increased usage of alternative transportation modes during public transportation disruptions has been well documented in the literature. While many papers discuss the resilience of the disrupted mode or measure changes in the usage of various alternative modes, little research has addressed the capacity flexibility and the price fluctuations of the alternative modes—two important components of the quality of an alternative. This paper documents the capacity and price changes of BlaBlaCar during the nationwide French railway strike in 2018. We collected more than 1 million trip offers from the BlaBlaCar's API from April to July 2018, covering 82 representative intercity routes in France. Our empirical analysis shows that, on an average strike day, the number of offered seats increased by approximately 6 %, while the number of booked seats rose by 33 %. Despite the spikes in demand, prices remained stable during the strike. We argue that the price recommendation mechanism helped maintain the price stability on the platform during the strike. The mechanism is in fact an effective enforcement of the policy laid down by the French government to uphold the cost-sharing principle on ridesharing platforms. This paper presents a case of voluntary compliance by a private company to put in place a price recommendation mechanism that in effect stabilizes prices and contributes to the resilience of the whole transportation system against abnormal market conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Yu-Cheong Yeung & Dianzhuo Zhu, 2022. "Intercity ridesharing to the rescue: Capacity flexibility and price stability of BlaBlaCar during the 2018 French railway strike," Post-Print hal-03994955, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03994955
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Casprini, Elena & Di Minin, Alberto & Paraboschi, Andrea, 2019. "How do companies organize nascent markets? The BlaBlaCar case in the inter-city shared mobility market," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 270-281.
    2. Shaheen, Susan PhD & Stocker, Adam & Mundler, Marie, 2017. "Online and App-Based Carpooling in France: Analyzing Users and Practices—A Study of BlaBlaCar," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt3s40x2x2, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    3. Monchambert, Guillaume, 2020. "Why do (or don’t) people carpool for long distance trips? A discrete choice experiment in France," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 911-931.
    4. Farajallah, Mehdi & Hammond, Robert G. & Pénard, Thierry, 2019. "What drives pricing behavior in Peer-to-Peer markets? Evidence from the carsharing platform BlaBlaCar," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 15-31.
    5. Shanjiang Zhu & David M. Levinson, 2012. "Disruptions to Transportation Networks: A Review," Transportation Research, Economics and Policy, in: David M. Levinson & Henry X. Liu & Michael Bell (ed.), Network Reliability in Practice, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 5-20, Springer.
    6. Ivaldi, Marc & Palikot, Emil, 2020. "Sharing when stranger equals danger: Ridesharing during Covid-19 pandemic," CEPR Discussion Papers 15202, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Dianzhuo Zhu, 2021. "The Limits of Money in Daily Ridesharing: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural France," Revue d'économie industrielle, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 161-202.
    8. Marc Ivaldi & Emil Palikot, 2020. "Sharing when stranger equals danger: Ridesharing during Covid-19 pandemic," Post-Print hal-03166467, HAL.
    9. Crozet, Yves & Guihéry, Laurent, 2018. "Deregulation of long distance coach services in France," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 284-289.
    10. Shuyang Zhang & Hong K. Lo & Ka Fai Ng & Guojun Chen, 2021. "Metro system disruption management and substitute bus service: a systematic review and future directions," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 230-251, March.
    11. Yves Crozet & Laurent Guihéry, 2018. "Deregulation of long distance coach services in France," Post-Print halshs-01856648, HAL.
    12. Cox, Andrew & Prager, Fynnwin & Rose, Adam, 2011. "Transportation security and the role of resilience: A foundation for operational metrics," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 307-317, March.
    13. Tyndall, Justin, 2019. "Free-floating carsharing and extemporaneous public transit substitution," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 21-27.
    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. Matthias Beestermöller & Levke Jessen-Thiesen & Alexander Sandkamp & Alexander-Nikolai Sandkamp, 2023. "Striking Evidence: The Impact of Railway Strikes on Competition from Intercity Bus Services in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 10483, CESifo.

    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. Anne Aguiléra & Eléonore Pigalle, 2021. "The Future and Sustainability of Carpooling Practices. An Identification of Research Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Reynolds, Tim & White, Peter, 2022. "Forty years’ experience of deregulated express coach services in Britain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Dianzhuo Zhu, 2022. "Ridesharing: Its potential, challenges, and future in France," Working Papers hal-03994900, HAL.
    4. He, Sylvia Y. & Tao, Sui & Sun, Ka Kit, 2024. "Attitudes towards public transport under extended disruptions and massive-scale transit dysfunction: A Hong Kong case study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 247-258.
    5. Thierry Blayac & Patrice Bougette, 2023. "What can be Expected from Mergers After Deregulation? The Case of the Long-Distance Bus Industry in France," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 62(1), pages 63-97, February.
    6. Dalia Perkumienė & Milita Vienažindienė & Biruta Švagždienė, 2021. "The Sharing Economy towards Sustainable Tourism: An Example of an Online Transport-sharing Platform," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, October.
    7. Ivaldi, Marc & Nunez, Walter, 2022. "Covid-19 impact on Bike-sharing systems: An analysis for Toulouse, Lyon, and Montreal," TSE Working Papers 22-1317, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised 18 Nov 2022.
    8. Olga Abramova, 2022. "No matter what the name, we’re all the same? Examining ethnic online discrimination in ridesharing marketplaces," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1419-1446, September.
    9. María del Carmen Rey-Merchán & Antonio López-Arquillos & Manuela Pires Rosa, 2022. "Carpooling Systems for Commuting among Teachers: An Expert Panel Analysis of Their Barriers and Incentives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.
    10. Monchambert, Guillaume, 2020. "Why do (or don’t) people carpool for long distance trips? A discrete choice experiment in France," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 911-931.
    11. Wells, Peter & Wang, Xiaobei & Wang, Liqiao & Liu, Haokun & Orsato, Renato, 2020. "More friends than foes? The impact of automobility-as-a-service on the incumbent automotive industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    12. Feriél Adjeroud & Thierry Blayac, 2018. "Bus and carpooling travel time perceptions by users: what about the values of travel time for long-distance trips in France? [Perception du temps de transport par les usagers de l’autocar et du cov," Post-Print hal-02099824, HAL.
    13. Alix Le Goff & Guillaume Monchambert & Charles Raux, 2020. "Values of Time for Carpool Commuting with HOV lanes: A Discrete Choice Experiment in France," Working Papers halshs-02988756, HAL.
    14. Liu, Jianxiao & Gu, Hengyu & Zhou, Lin & Zhang, Hongmou & Wang, Luyao & Yu, Yue & Liu, Zhewei, 2024. "Resilience and recovery: Evaluating COVID pandemic effects on ride-hailing mobility and driver income dynamics," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    15. Monchambert, Guillaume, 2020. "Why do (or don’t) people carpool for long distance trips? A discrete choice experiment in France," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 911-931.
    16. Laurent Guihéry, 2019. "Long Distance Coach Services in France and Germany: the new European competition between Flixbus and BlaBlaBus," Post-Print halshs-02374703, HAL.
    17. Beria, Paolo & Bertolin, Alberto, 2019. "Evolving long-distance passenger services. Market concentration, fares and specialisation patterns in Italy," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 77-92.
    18. Cheng-Hsien Hsieh, 2014. "Disaster risk assessment of ports based on the perspective of vulnerability," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 74(2), pages 851-864, November.
    19. Julie Bulteau & Thierry Feuillet & Sophie Dantan & Souhir Abbes, 2023. "Encouraging carpooling for commuting in the Paris area (France): which incentives and for whom?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 43-62, February.
    20. Trucco, Paolo & Petrenj, Boris, 2023. "Characterisation of resilience metrics in full-scale applications to interdependent infrastructure systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).

    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:hal:journl:hal-03994955. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.