Door-to-door service or fare?: Analyzing travellers’ choice for ridepooling services with the help of Conjoint Analysis

Abstract

Public ridepooling systems could contribute to the reduction of traffic volume in cities by decreasing the number of rides by private car. Yet it is still unknown how urban travelers value different attributes of the ridepooling’s operational concept. Which characteristics of ridepooling concepts are most important to the users: short walking distances to the pick-up point, fare, travel time or the quality of information provided? In order to obtain a deeper understanding of traveler`s preferences concerning a ridepooling system a choice-based Conjoint Analysis was performed. Based on a literature review and a focus group six attributes of a ridepooling’s operational concept were determined: fare, walking distance, time of booking, shift of departure time, travel time and information provision. Data of 237 city dwellers from all over Germany were analyzed with the help of Cox-regression. Except for time of booking all factors significantly affected the respondents’ choice. The results underline the particular importance of the factor walking distance to the pick-up point for elderly, indicating that transportation agencies and transport policy bodies that plan to add a ridepooling service to their portfolio should consider establishing a door-to-door service. The results give guidance for the creation of a user-centered public transport system that meets the requirements of the prospective passengers and thus might contribute to the development of sustainable public transport systems.