Who uses ride‐hailing? Policy implications and evidence from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area

Abstract

While many are eager to guide policy decisions on ride‐hailing, understanding the broader social and travel implications hinges on local contexts. Towards providing policy guidance in the Canadian context, this paper explores how mobility sub‐markets are related to ride‐hailing use in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Using data from a 2018 travel survey, cluster analysis is used to identify four traveller sub‐markets which are compared with ride‐hailing use. The first comprises “multi‐modalists,” who are younger, mobile, educated, and represent the largest group of ride‐hailing users. Second are users in two auto‐oriented markets—“private modalists” and “auto dependents”—who are older and least likely to engage in ride‐hailing. Finally, “low‐mobility travellers” are the most socio‐economically vulnerable and have lower household incomes, lower education attainment, lower likelihoods of being employed, fewer cars per household, and the highest reliance on public transportation among users in the traveller sub‐markets. Nevertheless, this group represents the second largest market for ride‐hailing, which fills a mobility gap in the absence of auto access. Understanding the social and travel behaviour implications from ride‐hailing is important towards crafting context‐appropriate public policy. Results from this study suggest that ride‐hailing is primarily used by those who are already highly mobile (multi‐modalists) and those who are most vulnerable (low‐mobility travellers).

Policymaking and Planning for On-Demand Ride-Hailing in Toronto and Vancouver: Explanatory Factors and Policy Implications

“…This suggests that these trips could be understood as complementary to public transit. Similar findings were reported by Shi and Sweet (2020), in that on-demand ride-hailing is providing transportation access to low-income households and those with limited taxi and personal automobility access. Finally, Shaheen and Chan (2016) contend that on-demand ride-hailing has the potential to provide access to public transportation as a first-and last-mile transportation option.…”

“…2.1 On-Demand Ride-Hailing: An Overview On-demand ride-hailing is a service where an individual requests a ride in a vehicle using a mobile phone application and includes services such as those operated by Uber and Lyft (Shaheen & Chan, 2016). The nature of the vehicle, which is private and decentralized, is a defining feature of ondemand ride hailing (Shi & Sweet, 2020). Taxi services have often been characterized as the primary competitor for on-demand ride-hailing (Brail, 2018).…”

“…On-demand ride-hailing services are those where an individual requests a ride in a private vehicle using a mobile phone application (Shaheen & Chan, 2016). Vehicles are privately-owned and decentralized, and are coordinated by a Transportation Network Company (TNC) (Shi & Sweet, 2020). While some argue that on-demand ride-hailing will ultimately be regulated much like taxis (Mundy, 2018), others contend that additional research is required to support policy and planning for emerging transportation services, including on-demand ride-hailing (Habib & Lynn, 2020), suggesting that these services are conceptualized as an entirely new phenomenon.…”

On-demand Ride-hailing as Publicly Subsidized Mobility: An Empirical Case Study of Innisfil Transit

“…Studies show that despite ride-hailing being used predominantly by wealthier residents, it can also have positive impacts on equity. An analysis of survey data in the Greater Toronto Area indicated that that "low-mobility" travelers, who have lower likelihoods of being employed, have fewer cars per household, and have a high reliance on public transit, are the second largest type of ride hailing traveler after younger and highly educated travelers (Shi & Sweet, 2020) they were also negatively associated with weekend trips (Lavieri et al, 2018). In her study of ride hailing trips in Los Angeles, Brown found that while a larger portion of ride hailing users lived in high-income areas, users who lived in low-income areas made more trips (Brown, 2019).…”

“…Transit agencies have highlighted potential benefits while rationalizing partnerships with TNCs to provide on demand transit (Curtis et al, 2019;Feigon & Murphy, 2018;Thomas et al, 2021). Subsidized ride hailing may increase equity, combat transit poverty in low-density areas, and provide mobility options to people with lower household incomes and lower access to private vehicles (Allen & Farber, 2019;Shi & Sweet, 2020;Yan et al, 2019). On-demand services that offer door-to-door service are be especially impactful for elderly and paratransit users for whom walking to a stop can be a significant barrier to using transit (Miah et al, 2020).…”