Measuring the benefits of ridesharing services to urban travelers

In this paper, the authors measure the benefits of ridesharing services to travelers in the San Francisco Bay Area by estimating a mixed-logit model of mode choice. They include Uber as a representative ridesharing service and they quantify the welfare gain that it provides to travelers by estimatin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2020
Main Authors: Hwang, Hyeonjun, Winston, Clifford, Yan, Jia
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
The Brookings Institution
Transportation
Urban Areas
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:In this paper, the authors measure the benefits of ridesharing services to travelers in the San Francisco Bay Area by estimating a mixed-logit model of mode choice. They include Uber as a representative ridesharing service and they quantify the welfare gain that it provides to travelers by estimating the difference in total benefits with and without its service. Consumers gain roughly $1 billion annually from Uber's non-fare attributes, which they value but taxis have not provided. Annual benefits to travelers in major U.S. cities are likely to amount to several billions of dollars. Regulations that limit the expansion of ridesharing services are not justified and are likely to reduce travelers' welfare without addressing the problems of the modes that they seek to protect.