Project Summary
In recent years, economic, environmental, and social forces have quickly given rise to the “sharing economy,” a collective of entrepreneurs and consumers leveraging technology to share resources, save money, and generate capital. These shared mobility services may offer solutions to the broader challenges related to managing the growth and emissions of the transportation sector, as well as the growing stress on transportation infrastructure due to congestion by encouraging more ridesourcing/Transportation Network Company (TNC) vehicles to give shared (or pooled) rides. To prepare for the future, it is important to gain a robust understanding of different factors that influence the travel decisions of people toward shared mobility services, particularly pooling vs. non-pooled ridesourcing/TNCs. Understanding the tradeoffs of different travel options and the role of incentives/disincentives among travelers is important to frame policy decisions and potentially employ shared mobility services as an effective way to encourage pooling and reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In this study, we are interested in understanding the decisions of ridesourcing/TNC customers when choosing between a “ride alone” and “ride with others option” (e.g., Uber vs. UberPOOL) and what policies can reduce the price of a shared option by increasing the price of a “ride alone” option. To achieve these project goals, the project will collect data and conduct a choice analysis to understand travel decisions between pooled vs. non-pooled options. Second, we will analyze city-level policy scenarios where incentives encourage travel by pooled transportation modes and disincentives discourage travel by modes that are least efficient (e.g., increase vehicle miles traveled (VMT), peak travel demand). We will also examine the potential for pooled shared automated vehicles and evaluate the impact that shared automated vehicles might have on behavior/VMT as part of the scenario analysis.