Integrate the features of transportation networking companies and other shared mobility services into existing transportation systems and services in ways leveraging the services’ strengths and features.

Consensus study of technology-enabled transportation services.

Date Posted
02/26/2018
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Identifier
2018-L00805

Between Public and Private Mobility: Examining the Rise of Technology-Enabled Transportation Services

Summary Information

This study sought to examine the growth and diversification of technology-enabled mobility services, including transportation networking companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft, and explore the implications these services have for consumers and existing transportation services. The study identifies policy, regulatory, and other issues and opportunities that policy makers will need to consider as they plan for and regulate these services, including the existing regulatory structure for taxi, limousine, and transit services.

Lessons Learned

With appropriate regulation, and perhaps even subsidization to meet specific public policy goals, these new services can and should be integrated into metropolitan transportation systems to improve accessibility and sustainability. By affecting the cost, convenience, and flexibility of travel, technology-enabled mobility services may significantly alter travel behavior and potentially even land use patterns, particularly if these services continue to proliferate. Two major potential effects are particularly critical:

First, success in aggregating travel into a single vehicle for multiple travelers with similar origins and destinations will be important to producing lower travel costs for users and reduced negative impacts of vehicle travel. These new services have the potential to increase carpooling and ridesharing, which may in turn lead to increased average vehicle occupancies—ultimately reducing vehicle travel overall and ameliorating automotive externalities such as congestion, nonrenewable energy use, and emissions.

Second, by increasing convenient travel alternatives, the new services may encourage lower household vehicle ownership levels without sacrificing personal mobility, thus eliminating the bias toward high-fixed/low-variable costs in mode choice decisions implicit in vehicle ownership. This, in turn, could spur travel by public transit, walking, and biking and potentially favor urban over suburban residential location choices. These changes would have even more profound effects in the future if automated driving were to become widespread.