Ride-sourcing services and public transit

Abstract

On the one hand, ride-sourcing services act as convenient feeders to solve first-mile/last-mile problems for passengers on public transit. On the other hand, direct origin-to-destination ride-sourcing services may also absorb passengers from public transit. In this chapter, we develop a user equilibrium-based analytical model to examine how ride-sourcing services can both complement and replace public transit. Our analytical and numerical explorations reveal that the fleet size of ride-sourcing vehicles critically affects the complementary and substitutive relationship between ride-sourcing services and public transit. These explorations also reveal that ride-sourcing service fares affect the market share between first-mile/last-mile ride-sourcing services (i.e., from an origin to a transportation hub or from a transportation hub to a destination) and direct ride-sourcing services (i.e., from an origin to a destination). We also examine the optimal strategies for maximising the profit and/or social welfare of transportation network companies (TNCs) and find that a Pareto-efficient strategy can be implemented by TNCs to meet both objectives.