Social and trip-level predictors of pooled ride-hailing service adoption in the Greater Boston region

Abstract

Ridesharing holds promise as a more efficient and sustainable version of emergent ride-hailing services. However, the adoption of pooled services in which individuals pay a reduced fare to share a portion of their ride-hailing trip with other passengers has substantially lagged in popularity to the standard single-party services offered by Uber and Lyft in many American cities. To help guide policies and programs targeted at increasing pooling shares, this study analyzes data collected during fall 2017 from an in-vehicle intercept survey of 944 ride-hailing passengers in the Greater Boston region. These data, which describe the socioeconomic background, mobility options, and trip context of single-party and pooled ride-hailing survey respondents, were used to identify differences in the trip patterns and individual characteristics of passengers adopting the two service types and then estimate the individual-level social and trip-related predictors of ridesharing for different purposes. The study results are complemented with a discussion of encouraging ridesharing programs and policies.