How and why do people with disabilities use app-based ridehailing?

Abstract

Over 40 million people in the United States live with disabilities. Yet, relatively little is known about the travel behavior of people with disabilities, particularly as it relates to their use of emerging services like app-based ridehailing provided by transportation network companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft. Analyzing in-depth interviews with 32 individuals with disabilities living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I find that TNC use depends on respondents’ prior experience using transportation and smartphones. Older adults and those who acquired their disabilities relatively recently had difficulty using app-based ridehailing due to perceived and experienced challenges hailing a ride, finding the vehicle, and getting to their destination independently. Younger respondents and those who had lived with their disabilities longer perceived ridehailing to be reliable and convenient, and found it relatively more affordable than taxis. They liked having app-based ridehailing as an option. This was also true among respondents who used motorized wheelchairs, but they said that the availability and quality of wheelchair-accessible ridehailing services were lacking. Subsidizing app-based ridehailing may encourage greater use of these services among some people with disabilities. However, this approach and new policies aimed at improving wheelchair-accessible ridehailing services do not address expressed barriers to ridehailing use—especially among older adults with disabilities. Other interventions, such as training programs for ridehailing drivers as well as potential riders, might help address some of these barriers.