The True Cost of Sharing: A Detour Penalty Analysis Between Ridehailing and Shared Ridehailing Trips in Toronto  

Pooled ride-hailing services such as UberPool are believed to contribute towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion, and have caught the attention of policymakers, as they align much closer to sustainable transport objectives. The relative sustainability of these services depends on their ability to successfully match riders for pooled trips. Accordingly, this paper examines the matching propensity of shared ride-hailing services and explores the detour penalty associated with pooling, as this impacts the uptake and viability of shared services. Using a 12-million record dataset of every ride-hailing trip conducted in Toronto between September 2016 and March 2017, the authors determine that 15% of ride-hailing trips were pooled, but that only 52% of these were actually matched. A probit model reveals that higher demand and longer trip distances significantly improve matching propensity. The authors also examine the detour penalty associated with pooling and find that successfully matched shared ride-hailing trips only took 3.6 minutes longer, on average, than comparable non-shared trips. The authors' findings imply that reducing the detour time associated with pooling to attract more riders may ultimately increase the likelihood that shared trips go unmatched, negating the sustainability benefits of the service.

• Record URL:
  https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/OnlineProgram/Details/15913
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AEP35 Standing Committee on Effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on Travel Choices.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Young, Mischa
  • 0000-0001-7001-1408
  • Farber, Steven
  • Palm, Matthew
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
• Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 24p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Detours; Penalties; Ridesourcing; Shared mobility; Travel demand
• Geographic Terms: Toronto (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01764243
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-00444
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2021 11:00AM