Does ridesourcing respond to unplanned rail disruptions? A natural experiment analysis of mobility resilience and disparity

TL;DR

This study investigates how ridesourcing services respond to unplanned urban rail disruptions in Chicago, revealing disparities in adaptive mobility benefits across different racial and economic communities.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the role of ridesourcing in enhancing urban transit resilience and highlights existing disparities in access during disruptions.

Findings

Ridesourcing usage increases during rail disruptions, especially on weekdays and severe events.

Higher shifts to ridesourcing are observed in affluent, predominantly White communities.

Lower-income communities of color benefit less from ridesourcing during disruptions.

Abstract

Urban rail transit networks provide critical access to opportunities and livelihood in many urban systems. Ensuring that these services are resilient (that is, exhibiting efficient response to and recovery from disruptions) is a key economic and social priority. Increasingly, the ability of urban rail systems to cope with disruptions is a function of a complex patchwork of mobility options, wherein alternative modes can complement and fill service gaps. This study analyzes the role of ridesourcing in providing adaptive mobility capacity that could be leveraged to fill no-notice gaps in rail transit services, addressing the question of distributional impacts of resilience. Using a natural experiment, we systematically identify 28 major transit disruptions over the period of one year in Chicago and match them, both temporally and spatially, with ridesourcing trip data. Using multilevel mixed modeling, we quantify variation in the adaptive use of on-demand mobility across the racially and economically diverse city of Chicago. Our findings show that the gap-filling potential of adaptive ridesourcing during rail transit disruptions is significantly influenced by station-, community-, and district-level factors. Specifically, greater shifts to ridesourcing occur during weekdays, nonholidays, and more severe disruptions, in community areas that have higher percentages of White residents and transit commuters, and in the more affluent North district of the city. These findings suggest that while ridesourcing appears to provide adaptive capacity during rail disruptions, its benefits do not appear to be equitable for lower-income communities of color that already experience limited mobility options.