Abstract
The rapid development of internet-based ride-hailing services has contributed to transportation in cities and, at the same time, has significantly impacted existing travel modes in cities. A question has emerged as to whether and to what extent ride-hailing services replace private car use. Although the private car is convenient, comfortable, and flexible, it has low utilization rate and high maintenance and parking costs. Better understanding of the relationship between ride-hailing services and the use of private cars has been brought to the forefront for auto dealers and urban transportation policymakers. However, controversies remain regarding how ride-hailing services will impact the use of private cars in cities. Given this setting, our study applied a difference-in-differences method to analyze the impact of ride-hailing services on the use of private cars with balanced panel data from 109 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2016. Moreover, we employed some methods to verify the robustness of the preliminary results. The empirical results show that ride-hailing services had a negative impact on the use of private cars in urban areas. Over time, the negative impact initially strengthened and then weakened. Further studies showed that ride-hailing services had a more significant negative impact on private car use in eastern cities than in western cities. The results showed that the influence of ride-hailing services on private car use in urban areas is heterogeneous across time and cities.
Highlights
As the use of Internet is becoming more widespread and smartphone usage is increasing, a sharing economy platform came into being in recent years that helps ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Didi Chuxing, which thrive in the context of the sharing economy
Further studies showed that ride-hailing services had a more significant negative impact on private car use in eastern cities than in western cities. e results showed that the influence of ride-hailing services on private car use in urban areas is heterogeneous across time and cities
It will have an impact on urban traffic congestion and environmental pollution. e impact of ride-hailing services on urban traffic is a problem that urban transportation administrators and government policymakers consider closely
Summary
As the use of Internet is becoming more widespread and smartphone usage is increasing, a sharing economy platform came into being in recent years that helps ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Didi Chuxing, which thrive in the context of the sharing economy. Erefore, the relationship between ride-hailing services and the use of private cars in urban settings is an issue worth studying It will enrich studies on the impact of emerging ride-hailing services on traditional travel patterns [5,6,7]. E impact of ride-hailing services on the use of private cars in different urban areas is analyzed, and the paper utilizes a more highly scientific, reasonable, and rigorous research design than that used in previous studies. Is timeline provides favorable conditions for natural experiments to analyze the changes in the use of private cars in urban areas before and after large-scale ride-hailing services enter cities. Is paper collected balanced panel data from 109 cities in China from 2010 to 2016 to study the impact of ridehailing services on private car use in urban areas.
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