Abstract
The advent of ridehailing services such as Uber and Lyft has expanded for-hire vehicle travel. We use data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) to investigate the extent of this expansion in the United States. We report changes in the for-hire vehicle market since ridehailing services became available and statistically estimate the determinants of ridehailing use. From 2009–2017, the for-hire vehicle market share doubled. While for-hire vehicles still only account for 0.5% of all trips, the percent of all Americans who use ridehailing in any given month is nearly 10%. Within the for-hire vehicle market, this trend of growth has not been uniformly distributed across demographic groups or geographies; it has been greater in mid-sized and large cities, and among younger individuals and wealthier households. This suggests that understanding the equity implications of ridehailing is an important avenue for research. Multivariate analysis provides evidence that both transit and nonmotorized transport use are correlated with ridehailing use, that ridehailing has a negative relationship with vehicle ownership, and that residents of denser areas have higher ridehailing use. Given the rapid growth of ridehailing, it has become important for cities to include for-hire vehicles in their planning going forward. These NHTS data provide a starting point, but more detailed and frequent data collection is needed to fully understand this many-faceted, rapidly-changing market.
Highlights
Since 2010, smartphone-enabled taxi-type services have proliferated
“for-hire vehicle” to refer to taxis, ridehailing, and other vehicles that can be hired for passenger service on a per-trip or per-hour basis, are provided with a driver, and do not follow a fixed route or schedule
This research has quantified the growth in for-hire vehicle use in the United States
Summary
Since 2010, smartphone-enabled taxi-type services have proliferated. The advent of these “ridehailing” services, such as Uber and Lyft in the United States, has precipitated dramatic growth in travel via for-hire vehicles. Suggests that automakers may find vastly different business models, providing mobility services rather than selling personal vehicles These characterizations are not without critique and some are speculative, as data to assess how the market is changing has been scarce. This research contributes to the nascent academic literature on ridehailing by using a large national travel survey to explore how ridehailing has changed the for-hire vehicle market and to estimate statistically the determinants of ridehailing use. The 2017 US National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) asked several questions about ridehailing and for-hire vehicle use. The paper proceeds to review the literature on ridehailing and taxi use and presents results based on the NHTS data. This is followed by a discussion of policy implications. We conclude with a call for improved ridehailing data collection and suggested directions for future research
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