Our results also suggest that there is no significant difference in possessing vehicles between regular and active users. Our results imply that regular and active users are less likely to retain one or more vehicles than non- and occasional users of ride-hailing services. We employ a bivariate ordered probit model with considerations of the recursive effect between ride-hailing usage and vehicle ownership. Our study examines the relationship between the usage of ride-hailing services and the number of vehicles owned by households using the micro-level data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). The overall impact of ride-hailing usage on vehicle ownership remains unclear at the household level. On the other hand, vehicle ownership reflects the availability of the private vehicle and subsequently affects ride-hailing usage. On the one hand, the frequency of ride-hailing usage shows a household preference for transportation modes and hence relates to vehicle ownership. These mixed findings in the literature might stem from a recursive effect between ride-hailing usage and vehicle ownership.
However, others find vehicle registration in urban areas grows after the Uber entry (Ward et al., 2021), and the number of household-owned vehicles had increased during 2012–2017 in several cities where ride-hailing services were heavily used (Schaller, 2019). Some studies find that the usage or availability of ride-hailing services is associated with a reduction in vehicle ownership (e.g., Blumenberg et al., 2021, Ward et al., 2019).
Uber, as one of the major rising Transportation Network Companies (TNC), has launched its business in 10,000 cities in over 71 countries worldwide (Uber, 2020).Īs ride-hailing becomes increasingly popular, its impact on household vehicle ownership is still under debate (Aguilera and Cacciari, 2020, Tirachini, 2019). A Pew Research Center survey also reveals that the share of the US adults who had used ride-hailing services doubled, from 15% in 2015 to 36% in 2018 (Jiang, 2019). By 2017, it was reported that about 10% of the United States (US) population had used ride-hailing services at least once a month on average (Conway et al., 2018).
1 Since it enables users to book, request, and pay for a service conveniently through websites and mobile apps, ride-hailing has attracted large numbers of customers over past years. Ride-hailing as an internet-based on-demand mobility service has received increasing attention in the recent decade.