Investigating Socio-spatial Differences between Solo Ridehailing and Pooled Rides in Diverse Communities

TL;DR

This study analyzes how socio-spatial factors influence the demand for solo versus pooled ridehailing services across diverse urban communities, revealing significant spatial and socio-economic disparities affecting mobility patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive spatial analysis of ridehailing demand, highlighting contrasting effects of socio-economic disadvantage on solo and pooled ride usage.

Findings

Socio-economic disadvantage correlates positively with pooled rides and negatively with solo rides.

Higher transit access increases demand for both ride types with notable spatial spillovers.

Density and vibrancy influence ride demand both directly and indirectly.

Abstract

Transformative mobility services present both considerable opportunities and challenges for urban mobility systems. Increasing attention is being paid to ridehailing platforms and connections between demand and continuous innovation in service features; one of these features is dynamic ride-pooling. To disentangle how ridehailing impacts existing transportation networks and its ability to support economic vitality and community livability it is essential to consider the distribution of demand across diverse communities. In this paper we expand the literature on ridehailing demand by exploring community variation and spatial dependence in ridehailing use. Specifically, we investigate the diffusion and role of solo requests versus ride-pooling to shed light on how different mobility services, with different environmental and accessibility implications, are used by diverse communities. This paper employs a Social Disadvantage Index, Transit Access Analysis, and a Spatial Durbin Model to investigate the influence of both local and spatial spillover effects on the demand for shared and solo ridehailing. The analysis of 127 million ridehailing rides, of which 15% are pooled, confirms the presence of spatial effects. Results indicate that density and vibrancy variables have analogue effects, both direct and indirect, on demand for solo vs pooled rides. Instead, our analysis reveals significant contrasting effects for socio-economic disadvantage, which is positively correlated with ride-pooling and negatively with solo rides. Additionally, we find that higher rail transit access is associated with higher demand for both solo and pooled ridehailing along with substantial spatial spillovers. We discuss implications for policy, operations and research related to the novel insight on how pooled ridesourcing relate to geography, living conditions, and transit interactions.