The utilisation and user characteristics of Uber services in London

ABSTRACT

Ridesourcing services such as Uber are nowadays a common feature within available transport options of many cities around the world (E.g. London & San Francisco). There has been much publicity about the potential impacts of ridesourcing services and how (or if) they should be managed or regulated without an objective understanding of who uses these services and why, as well as its current and future implications for public transport (PT).

Ridesourcing is part of a broader tech-driven, mobile app-based sharing phenomenon – the ‘sharing economy’ – which has disrupted traditional market models and industries, for example, the transport industry, where new players such as Uber have emerged and have quickly become part of the urban transport landscape. Uber has been at the forefront in disrupting the transport sector since its first launch in 2010 (San Francisco, USA). Since its launch, Uber has generated extensive media coverage and debate among policymakers, transport planners and transport authorities on how these services are affecting traditional transport modes such as buses and taxis. However, without objective empirical data – in terms of impacts on trip making characteristics, PT ridership and congestion – policymakers and transport regulators are yet to fully understand the real impacts ridesourcing services are having on the transport network.

This paper is part of broader research that aims to provide insights and empirical-based evidence on how Uber services are used (UberX and Uberpool) in London. A comprehensive survey was undertaken using a detailed questionnaire, issued to UberX and Uberpool users in London to gather detailed data on who uses the Uber services, why they use it and what are the trip purposes, in order to understand Uber user demographics and what effects (if any) Uber services are having on PT usage and trip making characteristics in London. The final findings provide important insights on Uber user demographics, trip purposes, types of trips replaced, impact on car ownership and why travellers use Uber services.     

Modelling car trip generations for UK residential developments using data from TRICS

Abstract

This paper models trip generation for a cross-section of residential developments around the UK. Consistent with recent literature, the empirical model tests whether trip making patterns for residential developments are independent of car ownership and finds that trip generation is dependent upon car ownership socio-economic factors and site-specific characteristics, in particular land-zone type (e.g. town centre, out of town, etc.). However, public transport services are not found to have a significant relationship with trip generation; consequently, a policy implication of the results is that increasing bus services to residential developments is not associated with a reduction in generated trips.     

An assessment of the demand for new transport technology in Australia

This paper summarizes the constraints which a technological innovation in transport must satisfy if it is to achieve widespread application. The existing and likely future travel demands in Australia are reviewed, and for certain types of travel it is concluded that existing modes may become unsuitable or unacceptable. In these areas, it is possible that a new transport technology may find application. In all other areas, it is considered that existing modes, or their functional successors, will continue.

Five possible demand areas in which new transport technology may find application are identified. These are as follows:

1) High speed distribution systems may be introduced in Australian CBD's (Central Business Districts) within the next ten years. These may be progressively extended to provide radial public transport services to the CBD. It is also possible that these systems may eventually be extended to provide a dual‐mode capability in inner‐suburban areas as a partial alternative to freeway construction.

2) New town developments which may be introduced in Australia could include various forms of advanced transportation systems.

3) New aviation modes, possibly including short take off and landing aircraft operating from suburban airports may be introduced to cater for inter‐urban travel.

4) A demand‐responsive transport system to cater for the needs of the transport poor in urban areas may find limited application.

5) In the longer term, possibly by the turn of the century, an improved transport system capable of providing door‐to‐door service over the whole of an urban area and operating under a dual‐mode configuration appears to be possible. It probably would emerge from development of an incremental nature and eventually include the installation of a new technology in the then existing freeway and railway reservations in the city.     

Understanding transport mode choice for commuting: the role of affect

This study examines the relationship between positive and negative user valence and transport mode choice behaviour. We integrate latent attitudes ‘affect’ and ‘salience’ into transport mode choice models using the framework of integrated choice and latent variable modelling and simultaneous maximum likelihood estimation methods. The results are consistent with findings in similar travel behaviour and behavioural economics literature. The study extends the findings of previous research and has demonstrated that user sentiments about public transport mode and salient public transport experiences have a significant impact on travel mode choice behaviour. It was found that private motorised users are more sensitive to overcrowding and anti-social behaviours on PT than active and PT travellers. Key attitudinal indicators influencing individual transport choice behaviour are established to guide public policy. The key indicators of Affect and Salience must be analysed and addressed through public policy to enhance PT user experience and develop services and facilities to increase the utility of PT in-vehicle travel time.     

Could you also have made this trip by another mode? An investigation of perceived travel possibilities of car and train travellers on the main travel corridors to the city of Amsterdam,The Netherlands

We investigated perceived travel possibilities (or subjective choice-sets, consideration-sets) of car and train travellers on the main corridors to the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and associations with traveller and trip characteristics. We conducted secondary analysis on a survey sample consisting of 7950 train and 19,232 car travellers. Forty-five percent of train travellers had a car in their objective choice-set, 27% of them would however never use it for this trip. Trip destination city centre, trip purpose, paying for the trip, public transport commitment, traffic congestion and parking problems were associated with consideration of car as alternative. Forty-two percent of car travellers had public transport in their subjective choice-set. The ratio between perceived public transport and objective car travel time stood out as determinant of consideration-sets, next to destination city centre, trip purpose, travel time and private versus company car ownership. On average, car travellers’ perceptions of public transport travel time exceeded objective values by 46%. We estimated that if perceptions would be more accurate, two out of three car travellers that currently do not see public transport as an alternative would include it in their choice-set, and use it from time to time. This effect has strong theoretical and policy implications.     

Route Choice Behaviour of Freeway Travellers Under Real-time Traffic Information Provision – Application of the Best Route and the Habitual Route Choice Mechanisms

Abstract

This paper investigates route choice behaviour on freeways between Taipei and Taichung in Taiwan under the provision of real-time traffic information. Two types of route choice selection rules (the best-route and habitual-route) are analysed using ordered probit models to identify the major influences on freeway travellers’ route choice behaviour. The level of service associated with each route is defined as a generalised cost saving (GCS) and specified non-linearly with a threshold inherent to travellers. The marginal (dis)utility thresholds in the ‘best’ and ‘habitual’ behaviour models are identified through a goodness-of-fit grid. The results confirm that the thresholds for changing the inertia behaviour of drivers should be larger than the ones for choosing the best routes. In addition, the drivers are more likely to choose either the best or the habitual routes once the GCS are greater than the identified threshold values.     

Commentaries

Abstract

This paper surveys the technologies available for constructing a pervasive, national‐scale road pricing system. It defines the different types of road pricing, the methods by which a vehicle’s position can be determined, and then examines possible pricing regimes in the context of their technological requirements and implications. The issue of enforcement and the distribution of pricing policies are considered, and further complexities are outlined. An examination of the security aspects of such systems is made, focusing particularly on the need to ensure privacy using technological, rather than solely procedural, methods. The survey concludes that a pervasive, national‐scale deployment is unlikely to be technically achievable in the short‐term.     

Adoption of Internet Services in Liner Shipping: An Empirical Study of Shippers in Taiwan

Abstract

The Internet service attributes desired by shippers were examined as well as a model that seeks to explain the intention of shippers to use Internet services in liner shipping. Using data collected from a survey of a group of shippers in Taiwan, the relationships among the constructs in the model were tested, namely: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, security and use intention. The results suggest that shippers perceive tracing to be the most important service attribute of Internet services, followed by checking for customs clearance, vessel schedules and electronic document services. The findings indicate that perceived ease of use is the major factor affecting the intention of shippers to use Internet services, and that perceived ease of use has a strong positive effect on perceived usefulness. The results also indicate that security has a positive effect on a shipper’s perception of ease of use. However, the influence of security on use intention and perceived usefulness was not supported in this study. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings on the intention of shippers to use Internet services in liner shipping are discussed.     

Navigation in crowded and restricted waters

Abstract

The freedom of the seas, or the right of innocent passage whereby the Master of a ship may proceed as and how he chooses has, in recent years, come under considerable public scrutiny. This scrutiny has resulted in an increasing intervention by land‐based authorities to limit the traditional freedoms, by means of regulating the flow of shipping movements.

This review therefore examines the reasons behind the public scrutiny and gives a history of the development of the shore‐based regulation of shipping movements, with examples of international, national and local measures taken. The effectiveness of such measures in terms of reducing accidents is discussed, drawing upon the results of surveys undertaken in a number of countries.

This, in turn, suggests criteria for determining the degree and type of shore‐based intervention appropriate to a given waterway, and permits certain conclusions to be drawn. Finally, future developments now under discussion are described, with a commentary on further developments now possible with modern technology.     

The MEPLAN models of Bilbao,Leeds and Dortmund

A trio of closely related land‐use/transport interaction models was developed using Marcial Echenique & Partners’ software package MEPLAN. The models were for the cities of Bilbao, (Spain), Dortmund (West Germany) and Leeds (England). All were calibrated using data drawn from earlier studies. The three models were used to predict the effects (relative to a base case) of a common programme of land‐use and transport policies or scenarios. This paper explains briefly the theoretical basis of the MEPLAN package as applied to urban models such as these three; describes the types of policies that have been assessed; and presents some of the key results.     

Modeling user adoption of advanced traveler information systems: dynamic evolution and stationary equilibrium

This paper models the growth rate and the saturation market penetration level for advanced traveler information system (ATIS) products/services with heterogeneous drivers. The price of using and the benefit gained from ATIS services are considered two key factors in explaining the growth of adoption of ATIS products. The information benefit is measured as the travel time saving between equipped and unequipped drivers and evaluated by a mixed stochastic and deterministic network equilibrium model. A modified logistic type growth model is adopted to describe the cumulative adoption of ATIS products over years. The final stationary equilibrium level of ATIS market penetration is so determined that the value of the information provided will decline to the point at which no new users will find it advantageous to purchase that service. The endogenous growth and stationary equilibrium model of market penetration of ATIS services is useful for forecasting the growth process and the impacts on the system performance of ATIS.     

Preferences of travellers for using automated vehicles as last mile public transport of multimodal train trips

In the recent years many developments took place regarding automated vehicles (AVs) technology. It is however unknown to which extent the share of the existing transport modes will change as result of AVs introduction as another public transport option. This study is the first where detailed traveller preferences for AVs are explored and compared to existing modes. Its main objective is to position AVs in the transportation market and understand the sensitivity of travellers towards some of their attributes, focusing particularly on the use of these vehicles as egress mode of train trips. Because fully-automated vehicles are not yet a reality and they entail a potentially high disruptive way on how we use automobiles today, we apply a stated preference experiment where the role of attitudes in perceiving the utility of AVs is particularly explored in addition to the classical instrumental variables and several socio-economic variables. The estimated discrete choice model shows that first class train travellers on average prefer the use of AVs as egress mode, compared to the use of bicycle or bus/tram/metro as egress. We therefore conclude that AVs as last mile transport between the train station and the final destination have most potential for first class train travellers. Results show that in-vehicle time in AVs is experienced more negatively than in-vehicle time in manually driven cars. This suggests that travellers do not perceive the theoretical advantage of being able to perform other tasks during the trip in an automated vehicle, at least not yet. Results also show that travellers’ attitudes regarding trust and sustainability of AVs are playing an important role in AVs attractiveness, which leads to uncertainty on how people will react when AVs are introduced in practice. We therefore state the importance of paying sufficient attention to these psychological factors, next to classic instrumental attributes like travel time and costs, before and during the implementation process of AVs as a public transport alternative. We recommend the extension of this research to revealed preference studies, thereby using the results of field studies.     

Gauging interventions for sustainable travel: A comparative study of travel attitudes in Berlin and London

So-called ‘soft’ policy instruments that respond to the psychological aspects of travel are regularly acknowledged as necessary complements to ‘hard’ infrastructure investments to effectively promote sustainable travel in cities. While studies investigating subjective orientations among travellers have proliferated, open questions remain including the role of recent technological advances, the expansion of alternative mobility services, locally specific mobility cultures and residential selection. This paper presents the methods, results and policy implications of a comparative study aiming to understand mobility attitudes and behaviours in the wider metropolitan regions of Berlin and London. We specifically considered information and communication technology (ICT), new types of mobility services such as car sharing, electric cars and residential preferences. In each region, we identified six comparable segments with distinct attitudinal profiles, socio-demographic properties and behavioural patterns. Geocoding of the home address of respondents further revealed varying contextual opportunities and constraints that are likely to influence travel attitudes. We find that there is significant potential for uptake of sustainable travel practices in both metropolitan regions, if policy interventions are designed and targeted in accordance with group-specific needs and preferences and respond to local conditions of mobility culture. We identify such interventions for each segment and region and conclude that comparative assessment of attitudinal, alongside geographical, characteristics of metropolitan travellers can provide better strategic input for realistic scenario-building and ex-ante assessment of sustainable transport policy.     

Simultaneous determination of the equilibrium market penetration and compliance rate of advanced traveler information systems

We consider a specific advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) whose objective is to reduce drivers’ travel time uncertainty with recurrent network congestion through provision of traffic information. Since the provided information is still partial or imperfect, drivers equipped with an ATIS cannot always find the shortest travel time route and thus may not always comply with the advice provided by ATIS. Thus, there are three classes of drivers on a specific day: drivers without ATIS, drivers with ATIS but without compliance with ATIS advice, drivers with ATIS and in compliance with ATIS advice. All three classes of drivers make route choice in a stochastic manner, but with different degree of uncertainty of travel time on the network. In this paper we investigate the interactions among the three classes of drivers in an ATIS environment using a multiple behavior stochastic user equilibrium model. By assuming that the market penetration of ATIS is an increasing function of the actual private gain (time saving minus the cost associated with system use) derived from ATIS service, and the ATIS compliance rate of equipped drivers is given as the probability of the actual travel time of complied drivers being less than that of non-complied drivers, we determine the equilibrium market penetration and compliance rate of ATIS and the resulting equilibrium network flow pattern using an iterative solution procedure.     

Assessing Service Quality,Switching Costs and Customer Loyalty in Home‐Delivery Services in Taiwan

Abstract

This study empirically investigated service quality, switching costs and customer loyalty from home‐delivery services' customers' perceptive. With regard to service quality attributes, findings indicated that customers were most satisfied with ‘range of delivery’, followed by ‘seldom loses parcels’, ‘invoice accuracy’, ‘prompt and reliable collection’ and ‘delivery by due time’. They were least satisfied with competitiveness of price. A structural equation modelling (SEM) approach was employed to analyse the impact of service quality and switching costs on customer loyalty from customers' perspective. Results revealed that service quality positively influenced switching costs and customer loyalty, and switching costs had a positive effect on customer loyalty. Investigation of the moderating effect of switching costs on the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty indicated that it was significantly important. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for firms providing home‐delivery services are discussed.     

The demand for public transport. part II. supply and demand factors of public transport

Abstract

This two‐part article, concerned with the way public transport ridership is affected by the various relevant factors, is based on the Executive Summary of The Demand for Public Transport (Webster and Bly 1980), the report of the TRRL‐sponsored International Collaborative Study on Factors Affecting Public Transport Patronage. Part I of the article, which was concerned with the social and economic conditions in which public transport operates, showed the importance of the background factors such as income, car ownership and land use on public transport usage: it also indicated how the longer‐term impacts of the more direct demand factors (fares, service levels) often show themselves in changes in car ownership levels, activity patterns (i.e. where people live, work, shop, socialize, etc) and land‐use development.

Part II reviews the current state of knowledge on the effects of changes in fare levels and quality of service and of the introduction of various traffic and transport measures (traffic restraint, bus priority, etc): it outlines current methodology on costing public transport services and draws the supply and demand sides together in a consideration of particular strategies which are at the disposal of the operator, the planner and the policy maker.     

Not All Transfers Are Created Equal: Towards a Framework Relating Transfer Connectivity to Travel Behaviour

Abstract

Walking from origins to transit stops, transferring between transit lines and walking from transit stops to destinations—all add to the burden of transit travel, sometimes to a very large degree. Transfers in particular can be stressful and/or time‐consuming for travellers, discouraging transit use. As such, transit facilities that reduce the burdens of walking, waiting and transferring can substantially increase transit system efficacy and use. In this paper, we argue that transit planning research on transit stops and stations, and transit planning practice frequently lack a clear conceptual framework relating transit waits and transfers with what we know about travel behaviour. Therefore, we draw on the concepts of transfer penalties and value of time in the travel behaviour/economics literature to develop a framework that situates transfer penalties within the total travel generalized costs of a transit trip. For example, value of time is important in relating actual time of waiting and walking to the perceived time of travel. We also draw on research to classify factors most important to users’ perspectives and travel behaviour—transfer costs, time scheduling and five transfer facility attributes: (1) access, (2) connection and reliability, (3) information, (4) amenities, and (5) security and safety. Using this framework, we seek to explicitly relate improvements of transfer stops/stations with components of transfer penalties and changes in travel behaviour (through a reduction in transfer penalties). We conclude that the employment of such a framework can help practitioners better apply the most effective improvements to transit stops and transfer facilities.     

Transport in developing and emerging nations

One perspective on the allocation of transport investments by public authorities is offered by the so‐called ‘pork barrel’ model, whereby politicians and political parties allocate public investment spatially in such a way as to gain electoral support from localities so benefited. The paper introduces this model and discusses its attractions and problems in the case of the transport sector. A review of the modest number of published examples of this approach is offered before a detailed case study considers the case of railway investment in Nelson, New Zealand.     

Effect of advanced traveler information systems and road pricing in a network with non-recurrent congestion

The effect of the application of advanced transport information system (ATIS) and road pricing is studied in a transportation system under non-recurrent congestion. A stochastic network deterministic user equilibrium model (SNDUE) with elastic demand is formulated and used to evaluate the welfare and private impacts of different market penetrations of ATIS, together with road pricing for a simple network. Both marginal first-best road pricing and a second-best fixed road pricing are considered. The incentives of private users to use ATIS are analyzed and the characteristics of optimum tolls as a function of ATIS market penetration are shown. We conclude that ATIS is an efficient and necessary tool to reduce the effects of non-recurrent incidents in a transportation network, especially when non-recurrent congestion causes a significant deterioration of operational conditions of the network. If the impact of non-recurrent incidents on free flow costs is small or is reduced only to congestion effects, the use of road pricing would be more efficient. Social benefits obtained when jointly implementing ATIS and road pricing are practically the same whether first-best or second-best road pricing is used. Considering the private costs perceived by the network users, and the benefits experienced by equipped users, the maximum level of market penetration achieved could be limited because private benefits disappear after certain market penetration is obtained.