What Does Ridesharing Replace?
Ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft are increasingly popular with many travelers. Yet little is known about the effects of this mode on travel behavior and other social effects, such as public transit use, traffic, and pollution. In this paper, the authors estimate the effects of the availability of ridesharing on travel mode choices in a large sample of metropolitan areas. The authors do so by estimating a discrete choice model of household mode choice using nationally representative data on travel behavior and simulating household mode choices in a setting where ridesharing was not available. The authors find that a majority of travelers would have used a car or taxi or walked had ridesharing not been available. In some large cities, however, ridesharing displaces a significant portion of public transit trips. The authors find that the availability of ridesharing has led to modest increases in total vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the effects of ridesharing could be heterogeneous across cities because of the differences in each city’s drivability and public transit use.
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- Summary URL:
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Supplemental Notes:
- © 2020 Resources for the Future.
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Corporate Authors:
Resources for the Future
Washington, DC United States -
Authors:
- Leard, Benjamin
- Xing, Jianwei
- Publication Date: 2020-2
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 49p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Choice models; Cities; Households; Impacts; Mode choice; Pollutants; Ridesharing; Ridesourcing; Travel behavior; Vehicle miles of travel
- Geographic Terms: United States
- Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01742534
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: Working Paper 20-03
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Jun 16 2020 4:24PM