Understanding ride-hailing and inventing future transit : pathways to spatial justice

Abstract

Against the backdrop of rapid technological advancements, the debate on how the emerging digital turn will revolutionize individual and collective mobility is intensifying. An often-ignored fact is that the emerging mobility service does not benefit citizens equally. It may benefit some citizens at the expense of others, or possibly drive uneven development that entrenches existing privileges and contribute to urban marginality, inequality, or social exclusion. The users of ride-hailing are typically younger and richer. They can fully enjoy the convenience of modern life through technological advancement. At the same time, the disadvantaged populations, like the elderly, the poor, and the housewives have fewer travel choices than before. The Uberization of mobility leads to people abandoning old-fashioned and lumbering conventional transit service, causing a decline in the transit ridership and the decline results in cuts to transit service. Eventually, the slumping of transit choices limits their access to job opportunities and other life-sustaining activities. Bearing these concerns in mind, this thesis focuses on two research questions. First, what are the influencing factors preventing disadvantaged populations from using ride-hailing? Second, how to design a new model of public transit toward spatial justice based on previous evidence? To answer question 1, four empirical analyses have been conducted from two aspects: spatial and social. In terms of spatial factors, it investigates land use and new town planning, explaining the spatial heterogeneity of ride-hailing usage after controlling individual factors at the city level. Major findings show that spatial distribution of land use at the sub-metropolitan and supra-neighborhood scales affects ride-hailing usage. As well as the construction of the new town has attracted high-end talents and affluent people to seek high-quality life there, so as to stimulate the demand of ride-hailing in new areas. For the social factors, it explores gender and affordability, representing how individual characteristics affect the use of ride-hailing. Major findings indicate that ride-hailing emerges as an affordable travel mode addressing women’s demand for long-distance travel in the Chinese context but still cannot disrupt the long-term structural disparities in the gendered capability of move. Also, personal affordability significantly affects an individual’s travel choice. The lower the affordability, the lower possibility to choose ride-hailing when commuting. But when it comes to leisure travel, ride-hailing is more of an alternative to low-income people’s public transit while the affluent still choose to drive. To answer question 2, a simulation study has been conducted. It examines the possible socio-spatial outcomes of inventing new transit schemes by generating a wide array of indicators that measured the new transit performance regarding travel efficiency, fleet supply requirement, and citizens’ accessibility to jobs at a city level. It found that the scenario of a floating 32-seat bus fleet serving as a metro feeder gives maximum benefits of 24.71% improvement in travel time for all. However, only the stop-based mode has a higher possibility to improve accessibility for lower affordability populations. The findings could inform the framing of urban transport policy toward a more equitable and inclusive future.