Regulating TNCs: Should Uber and Lyft Set Their Own Rules?

We evaluate the impact of three proposed regulations of transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber, Lyft and Didi: (1) a minimum wage for drivers, (2) a cap on the number of drivers or vehicles, and (3) a per-trip congestion tax. The impact is assessed using a queuing theoretic equilibrium model which incorporates the stochastic dynamics of the app-based ride-hailing matching platform, the ride prices and driver wages established by the platform, and the incentives of passengers and drivers. We show that a floor placed under driver earnings pushes the ride-hailing platform to hire more drivers and offer more rides, at the same time that passengers enjoy faster rides and lower total cost, while platform rents are reduced. Contrary to standard economic theory, enforcing a minimum wage for drivers benefits both drivers and passengers, and promotes the efficiency of the entire system. This surprising outcome holds for almost all model parameters, and it occurs because the wage floors curbs TNC labor market power. In contrast to a wage floor, imposing a cap on the number of vehicles hurts drivers, because the platform reaps all the benefits of limiting supply. The congestion tax has the expected impact: fares increase, wages and platform revenue decrease. We also construct variants of the model to briefly discuss platform subsidy, platform competition, and autonomous vehicles

ROD-revenue: seeking strategies analysis and revenue prediction in ride-on-demand service using multi-source urban data

International audienceRecent years witness the rapidly-growing business of ride-on-demand (RoD) services such as Uber, Lyft and Didi. Unlike taxi services, these emerging transportation services use dynamic pricing to manipulate the supply and demand, and to improve service responsiveness and quality. Despite this, on the drivers' side, dynamic pricing creates a new problem: how to seek for passengers in order to earn more under the new pricing scheme. Seeking strategies have been studied extensively in traditional taxi service, but in RoD service such studies are still rare and require the consideration of more factors such as dynamic prices, the status of other transportation services, etc. In this paper, we develop ROD-Revenue, aiming to mine the relationship between driver revenue and factors relevant to seeking strategies, and to predict driver revenue given features extracted from multi-source urban data. We extract basic features from multiple datasets, including RoD service, taxi service, POI information, and the availability of public transportation services, and then construct composite features from basic features in a product-form. The desired relationship is learned from a linear regression model with basic features and high-dimensional composite features. The linear model is chosen for its interpretability-to quantitatively explain the desired relationship. Finally we evaluate our model by predicting drivers' revenue. We hope that ROD-Revenue not only serves as an initial analysis of seeking strategies in RoD service, but also helps increasing drivers' revenue by offering useful guidance

Hybrid Mechanisms for On-Demand Transport

Peer reviewedPostprin

Exploration of the Current State and Directions of Dynamic Ridesharing

Dynamic ridesharing (DRS) is an emerging transportation service based on the traditional concept of shared rides. DRS makes use of web-based real-time technologies to match drivers with riders. Enabling technologies include software platforms that operate on mobile communication devices and contain location-aware capabilities including Global Positioning Systems (Agatz, Erera, Savelsberg, & Wang, 2012). The platforms are designed to provide ride-matching services via smartphone applications differing from early systems that used non-real time services such as internet forums, or telecommunications, where responses were not immediate. The study of DRS is important when considering its role as an emerging transportation demand management strategy. DRS reduces travel demand on singleoccupancy vehicles (SOVs) by filling vehicle seats that are typically left vacant. The most recent statistics of vehicle occupancy rates were measured in 2009 by the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation. According to the NHTS, the 2009 occupancy rate for all purposes was a meager 1.67 persons per vehicle (Federal Highway Administration, 2015). Vehicle occupancy rates examined against the total of all registered highway vehicles in the U.S. as of 2012, calculated at 253,639,386 (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2015), reveals the magnitude of the impact of SOVs. Left unattended, the ramifications for environmental outcomes is substantial. Among the major energy consuming sectors, transportation\u27s share is largest in terms of total CO2 emissions at 32.9% (Davis, Diegel, & Boundy, 2014, p. 11-15). DRS offers promise to fill empty vehicle seats. Evidence indicates that specific demographic subgroups are inclined to use DRS services. For example, data suggest that the subgroup of 18 to 34-year-olds, the so-called millennials , have negative attitudes towards private car ownership unlike previous age groups (Nelson, 2013). Data collected for this study revealed that the millennial subgroup represents half of all DRS users. Millennials also revealed they tended to use DRS more than other subgroups to replace a private vehicle. Further research is needed to determine if the trend towards DRS by 18 to 34-year-olds represents current economic factors or a fundamental cultural shift away from the SOV transportation model

Governance and Regulation of Ride-hailing Services in Emerging Markets: Challenges, Experiences and Implications

This paper seeks to shed some light on the different considerations for regulation and governance of ride-hailing platforms in emerging markets, highlighting their positive and negative externalities. Building on an extensive review of the literature and secondary sources, we outline Ride-hailing's identified and potential effects on users (providers and consumers), incumbents, and society. Based on the welfare impacts structure, we identify the significant challenges that regulators face in understanding, monitoring, evaluating, and regulating this type of transportation innovation. Finally, the paper proposes a framework for approaching such mobility innovations from governance and regulation perspectives. In a context of exponential growth in research and innovation in urban mobility in general and Ride-hailing, a rigorous review of the literature and a critical framework for understanding governance and regulation in such services in rapidly changing contexts is a timely contribution

The future of mobility impact of robotaxis on the european passenger transportation industry

Automation, connectivity, electrification, and shared mobility are the dominant trends transforming the passenger transportation industry. Together they form what is considered one of the most disruptive means of transportation of the future, the robotaxi. This master thesis explores the impact of robotaxis on the future of the passenger transportation industry, with particular attention to the usage perspectives and mobility behavior of consumers. The results are based on an exploratory analysis involving seven in-depth semi-structured expert interviews, a consumer survey, and existing literature. Usage perspectives were observed through a use case analysis that identified work-related commuting as the use case with the highest application potential. In the light of work-related commuting, the thesis revealed that robotaxis significantly reduce commuters’ value of time and display an attractive mobility alternative from a cost perspective. In addition, it is shown that in the next ten years, consumer preferences regarding consumers’ transportation choice significantly shift towards robotaxis. The research reveals that the industry’s most likely future state is characterized by the gradual introduction of robotaxis. Therefore, in five to ten years, robotaxis are used by early adopters and will impose significant changes in industry dynamics as competition increases and new revenue streams emerge. The results intend to enable industry players to target specific consumers, derive strategic implications, business models, and vehicle concepts. Further, they contribute to an objective scientific, political, and social discussion and serve as a basis for further research in the field of robotaxis.Automação, conectividade, eletrificação, e mobilidade partilhada são as tendências dominantes que têm transformado a indústria de transporte de passageiros. Juntos, formam um dos meios de transporte mais disruptivos, o robotáxi. Esta tese explora o impacto dos robotáxis no futuro desta indústria, focando-se nas perspetivas de utilização e no comportamento de mobilidade dos consumidores. Os resultados baseiam-se numa análise que inclui sete entrevistas feitas a peritos, um inquérito aos consumidores e na literatura existente. As perspetivas de utilização foram observadas através de uma análise de caso de uso que identificou as deslocações para o trabalho como o caso com maior potencial de aplicação. Revela-se que os robotáxis reduzem significativamente a perceção de tempo gasto nestas deslocações e constituem uma alternativa de mobilidade atrativa do ponto de vista monetário. Adicionalmente, mostra-se que, nos próximos dez anos, as preferências dos consumidores em relação à escolha de transporte mudarão significativamente havendo uma tendência para a adoção de robotáxis. Este estudo revela que o futuro da indústria será marcado pela introdução gradual de robotáxis. Assim, dentro de cinco a dez anos, os robotáxis serão utilizados pelos consumidores pioneiros na adoção e irão impor mudanças significativas na dinâmica da indústria à medida que a concorrência aumente e surjam novos fluxos de receitas. Os resultados do estudo pretendem permitir aos agentes desta indústria focar-se em consumidores específicos, retirar implicações estratégicas, modelos empresariais, e conceitos relacionados com veículos. Adicionalmente, contribuem para uma discussão científica, política e social e servem de base para mais investigação no campo dos robotáxis

Urban Transportation Policy: A Guide and Road Map

The main transportation issues facing cities today fall into familiar categories--congestion and public transit. For congestion, there is now a far richer menu of options that are understood, technically feasible, and perhaps politically feasible. One can now contemplate offering roads of different qualities and prices. Many selected road segments are now operated by the private sector. Road pricing is routinely considered in planning exercises, and field experiments have made it more familiar to urban voters. Concerns about environmental effects of urban trucking have resulted in serious interest in tolled truck-only express highways. As for public transit, there is a need for political mechanisms to allow each type of transit to specialize where it is strongest. The spread of “bus rapid transit†has opened new possibilities for providing the advantages of rail transit at lower cost. The prospect of pricing and privatizing highway facilities could reduce the amount of subsidy needed to maintain a healthy transit system. Privately operated public transit is making a comeback in other parts of the world. The single most positive step toward better urban transportation would be to encourage the spread of road pricing. A second step, more speculative because it has not been researched, would be to use more environmentally-friendly road designs that provide needed capacity but at modest speeds, and that would not necessarily serve all vehicles.Transportation policy; Road pricing; Privatization; Product differentiation

Automated Transit Networks (ATN): A Review of the State of the Industry and Prospects for the Future, MTI Report 12-31

The concept of Automated Transit Networks (ATN) - in which fully automated vehicles on exclusive, grade-separated guideways provide on-demand, primarily non-stop, origin-to-destination service over an area network – has been around since the 1950s. However, only a few systems are in current operation around the world. ATN does not appear “on the radar” of urban planners, transit professionals, or policy makers when it comes to designing solutions for current transit problems in urban areas. This study explains ATN technology, setting it in the larger context of Automated Guideway Transit (AGT); looks at the current status of ATN suppliers, the status of the ATN industry, and the prospects of a U.S.-based ATN industry; summarizes and organizes proceedings from the seven Podcar City conferences that have been held since 2006; documents the U.S./Sweden Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Transport; discusses how ATN could expand the coverage of existing transit systems; explains the opportunities and challenges in planning and funding ATN systems and approaches for procuring ATN systems; and concludes with a summary of the existing challenges and opportunities for ATN technology. The study is intended to be an informative tool for planners, urban designers, and those involved in public policy, especially for urban transit, to provide a reference for history and background on ATN, and to use for policy development and research

Evaluation of advanced lift concepts and fuel conservative short-haul aircraft, volume 1

The performance and economics of a twin-engine augmentor wing airplane were evaluated in two phases. Design aspects of the over-the-wing/internally blown flap hybrid, augmentor wing, and mechanical flap aircraft were investigated for 910 m. field length with parametric extension to other field lengths. Fuel savings achievable by application of advanced lift concepts to short-haul aircraft were evaluated and the effect of different field lengths, cruise requirements, and noise levels on fuel consumption and airplane economics at higher fuel prices were determined. Conclusions and recommendations are presented