Measuring the Impact of an Unanticipated Suspension of Ride-Sourcing in Austin, Texas

On May 7, 2016 residents of Austin, TX voted against Proposition 1, which would have allowed transportation networking companies (TNCs) to continue using their own background check systems. The defeat of the proposition prompted Uber and Lyft to suspend services in Austin indefinitely. The suspension provided for a natural experiment to measure the impact of the suspension on travel behavior. In examining the impact the authors conducted an online survey that combines stated and revealed preference questions (N=1,840) of former Uber and/or Lyft users in Austin and explored the effect of the suspension on travel behavior. Regression analyses, modeled to capture both the before and after travel behavioral pattern of the suspension, were used to test the authors' hypothesis of the impact of the service suspension on travel behavior along three dimensions—mode choice, trip frequency, and vehicle ownership. Results from the analysis reveals that of the population surveyed, 42 percent of respondents who had used Uber or Lyft to make a trip prior to the suspension reported transitioning to another TNC after suspension. A near equal proportion (41 percent) reported transitioning to a personal vehicle, while 3 percent transitioned to public transit. Additionally, approximately 9 percent reported purchasing an additional vehicle in response to the service suspension. The vehicle acquisition trend was driven primarily by respondents who were inconvenienced by the service suspension—the odds of acquiring a car for an inconvenienced respondent was more than five times that of an individual who was not.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE50 Standing Committee on Transportation Demand Management. Measuring the Impact of an Unanticipated Suspension of On-Demand Ride Services in Austin, Texas: This is an alternative title.
• Authors:
  • Hampshire, Robert C
  • Simek, Chris
  • Fabusuyi, Tayo
  • Di, Xuan
  • Chen, Xi
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile ownership; Demand responsive transportation; Mode choice; Regression analysis; Travel behavior
• Uncontrolled Terms: Trip frequency
• Geographic Terms: Austin (Texas)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01663619
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03105
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 22 2018 11:57AM