On-Demand Ride Services in California: Investigating the Factors Affecting the Frequency of Use of Uber/Lyft

In this paper, the authors investigate the factors that affect the adoption and frequency of use of on-demand ride services, such as those offered by Uber and Lyft, among millennials and members of the preceding Generation X in California using the California Millennials Dataset (N = 1961). The authors analyze the impacts of five main groups of explanatory variables: sociodemographics, built environment characteristics, technology adoption and use of social media, travel-related choices, and attitudes and perceptions. They estimate (a) an ordered probit model with sample selection and (b) a zero-inflated ordered probit model to control for selectivity and inflation in the number of zeros, respectively. The results are consistent across models: the authors find that sociodemographic variables cannot explain much of the variation in Uber/Lyft frequency. Among different built environment variables, land use mix and activity density contribute to respectively decreasing and increasing the frequency of use of on-demand ride services. Further, the results confirm that individuals who frequently use smartphone apps to determine destination and route are more likely to adopt a service and use it more often. This is also true for individuals who live in zero-vehicle households and those with higher shares of long-distance leisure trips made by plane. Interestingly, users of carsharing services are more likely also to adopt on-demand ride services, but they tend to use them less frequently. Among various attitudes and perceptions, individuals with stronger preferences to own a personal vehicle are less likely to be frequent users of Uber/Lyft.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB20 Standing Committee on Effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on Travel Choices. On-Demand Ride Services in California: Investigating the Factors Affecting the Frequency of Use of Uber and Lyft: This is an alternate title.
• Authors:
  • Alemi, Farzad
  • Circella, Giovanni
  • Mokhtarian, Patricia
  • Handy, Susan
• 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: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile ownership; Demand responsive transportation; Mobile applications; Mode choice; Probits; Smartphones; Vehicle sharing
• Identifier Terms: Lyft; Uber
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01661394
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05563
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 27 2018 9:45AM