How does the ride-hailing systems demand affect individual transport regulation?

Abstract

This paper analyses the legal issues in individual transportation derived from the entrance of ride-hailing companies into the market, based on the Brazilian legislation. The legal problem of ridesourcing services revolves around the question whether they are of public or private nature. Legislation has been proposed to either ban or legalize the service and to give municipalities the right to regulate its operations. This paper also analyses socio-demographic and travel characteristics of the ridesourcing demand in Brazilian cities. Based on this demand's point of view, a logistic regression model was generated to predict the probability of users choosing a ride-splitting system. The results show that the majority of ridesourcing trips is replacing taxi and public transport trips. Safety and cost are the main reasons that influence the decision of sharing trips via ride-splitting. The use of larger vehicles for sharing trips can introduce competition with the public transport systems. The ridesourcing interference on collective public transportation may be more noticeable than on individual public transport (taxis), given the much greater demand for the former.