01697789

Component

Using electronic survey data from N = 2,041 Uber and Lyft users in the United States collected in 2016 and 2018, this paper establishes the validity, reliability, and invariance of a measure of rider-to-rider race and social class discrimination in ridesharing. The authors then incorporate this measure into three structural models to investigate associations between rider-to-rider discriminatory attitudes and ridesharing behavior. The authors find that discriminatory attitudes in the ridesharing context do not significantly predict whether a transportation network company (TNC) user has used a ridesharing service, suggesting that this decision is dominated by utilitarian considerations rather than attitudes. However, among those who have used ridesharing services (such as uberPOOL or Lyft Line) before, the authors find that discriminatory attitudes in ridesharing are marginally negatively predictive of an individual's percentage of shared trips and strongly negatively predictive of an individual's level of satisfaction with the sharing option. Finally, among those who have not yet used dynamic ridesharing services, the authors find discriminatory attitudes in ridesharing are strongly negatively predictive of willingness to consider using uberPOOL or Lyft Line in the future. The authors find no statistically significant difference in these relations across the two survey years. These findings indicate a significant association between rider-to-rider discriminatory attitudes and ridesharing behavior, and suggest that such attitudes may persistently discourage sharing. Further research is required to identify strategies for addressing discriminatory attitudes in the ridesharing context and overcoming reluctance to share.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB20 Standing Committee on Effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on Travel Choices.

19-05448

English

6p

2019

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References

Attitudes; Customer satisfaction; Demand responsive transportation; Discrimination; Ridesharing; Ridesourcing; Surveys; Travel behavior

United States

Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation; Society

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2019 Paper #19-05448

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 7 2018 9:37AM