Does Ridehailing Use Affect Vehicle Ownership or Vice Versa? An Exploratory Investigation of the Relationship Using a Latent Market Segmentation Approach

This research project presents an examination of the inter-relationship between household vehicle ownership and ridehailing use frequency. Both variables constitute important mobility choices with significant implications for the future of transport. While it is generally known that these two behavioral phenomena are inversely related to one another, the direction of causality is rather ambiguous. Do vehicle ownership levels affect ridehailing use frequency, or does the adoption and use of ridehailing services affect vehicle ownership? If ridehailing services affect vehicle ownership, then it is plausible that a future of mobility-as-a-service would be characterized by lower levels of vehicle ownership. To explore the degree to which these causal relationships are prevalent in the population, a joint latent segmentation model system is formulated and estimated on a survey data set collected in four automobile-oriented metropolitan areas of the United States. The latent segmentation model system recognizes that the causal structures driving mobility choices of individuals are not directly observed. Model estimation results show that 58 percent of the survey sample follow the causal structure in which ridehailing use frequency affects vehicle ownership. This finding suggests that there is considerable structural heterogeneity in the population with respect to causal structures, and that ridehailing use does indeed hold considerable promise to effect changes in private vehicle ownership in the future.

• Record URL:
  https://tomnet-utc.engineering.asu.edu/projects/asu-ridehailing-use-and-vehicle-ownership/

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $N/A
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747116

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks (TOMNET)

  Arizona State University
  Tempe, AZ  United States  85287
• Project Managers:

  Pendyala, Ram

• Performing Organizations:

  Arizona State University, Tempe

  Tempe, AZ  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Batur, Irfan

  Pendyala, Ram

• Start Date: 20220801
• Expected Completion Date: 20230731
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile ownership; Impacts; Market segmented groups; Mobility; Ridesourcing
• Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01868148
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks (TOMNET)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747116
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Dec 21 2022 12:12PM