Willingness to use ridesplitting services for home-to-work morning commute in the post-COVID-19 era

This paper explores the influencing factors of commuters’ willingness to use ridesplitting services in the post-COVID-19 era – including promotional strategies – and the possible differences of these factors among commuters with different home-to-work commuting distances. A survey developed for this study was conducted among 1600 commuters from Shanghai, China between September and November 2021. A correlated random parameters ordered probit model is used to estimate the impact of various factors on the willingness to use ridesplitting services for individuals with different trip distances. The model results indicate that the delay compensation strategy has the potential to offer the largest increase in the likelihood of using ridesplitting services, as compared to other promotional strategies (i.e., discount, credit, and priority service strategies), particularly for medium- and long-distance home-to-work commuters. At the same time, the likelihood of using ridesplitting services may vary across specific types of commuters, such as residence owners, commuters using automobile-based transportation modes, travelers with flexible work schedules, and commuters who frequently work overtime. The paper’s insights may be used by ridesplitting service providers to assist in designing effective strategies to promote ridesplitting services.