Understanding the role of risk perception and health measures in ridesourcing usage in the post-COVID-19 era

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on how people perceive health risks when using ridesharing services, as there is an increased risk of transmission. To mitigate this risk, individuals have implemented self-imposed preventive measures, while ridesharing service providers have introduced health measures to reduce the likelihood of transmission and encourage ridership. To understand the impact of COVID-19 on ridesharing usage and willingness to use it, we propose a framework to study the relationship between influencing factors (such as risk perception, vaccination status, and self-imposed or service-imposed non-pharmaceutical health measures like masks and/or sanitizing) and ridesharing-related decisions and intention. A web-based survey in China collected over 2300 responses, and Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes models were estimated to investigate the influencing factors’ impacts on ridesourcing service usage at the later stage of the pandemic when China was still under Zero-COVID policy and their willingness to use it after the pandemic. The estimation results indicate that risk perception, self-imposed and service-imposed health measures, post-pandemic expectations of these measures are key influencing factors, along with certain sociodemographic and travel behavior factors. These findings can help decision-makers develop strategies to support the recovery of ridesharing services in the post-COVID-19 era.