The social impact of ride-hailing services

林楚乔

Abstract

Nowadays， sharing economy-based companies are gradually increasing their influence on our daily lives： we hire drivers on apps like Didi and Uber to pick us up instead of waiting for taxis. As P2P companies increase their influence in the public services sector， the government rationally diverts more of its attention towards regulating the quality and service of these companies.

In this paper， wefirstly examine how different government regulations affect theride-hailingindustry in Beijing and New York. More importantly， our research mainly focuses on the interconnectedness between government policies， ride-hailing company's management team， drivers， and the consumers of rides-for-hire services.

In order to paint a fuller picture of the success of the ride-hailing industry in large cities， questionnaires on the ride-hailing consumers and drivers in Beijing are carried out. At the same time， we delve deep into the scholarly studies and articles that also investigate the picture of ride-hailing industries in the past 10 years.

We realize that government policies have a direct impact on the ride-sharing company as the imposed regulations will either assist or limit the expansion of the ride-sharing industry. Its crucial that these regulations can help to maintain a balance between taxi and ride-hailing market， providing satisfying service to customers.

Policies

Beijing's new policy established in 2017/05/21 stated that only Beijing cars and drivers are allowed in the ride-hailing business. However， many ride-sharing cars and drivers in Beijing are from outer provinces. Consequently， companies are losing valuable employees， simultaneously， drivers are losing their jobs and leaving the market. Therefore， the average price of ride-share cars increases substantially. The government implemented this policy in order to revitalize the taxi-market. In the long-term， this policy also aims to increase the quality of ridesharing cars， drivers， and services while decreasing the number of poor， unsatisfactory services. Xu Kang Ming， an expert from Chinas ministry of transportation， believes thatthe use of new regulation can create a fair market overall.” Here， Xu presents the idea that the government's objective to create a balanced rides for transprotation system that benefits the whole market. Therefore， both taxi and ride-hailing market can grow positively in the near future.

The City Council of New York is planning to put forward a new proposal for a yearlong cap on for-hire vehicle licenses as the number of cars in the street increased substantially， which is directly resulted from development of for-hire vehicles such as Uber and Lyft， prompting growing alarm over congestion and low driver wages. According to the report by Bruce Schaller in 2017， ride-hailing vehicles and yellow taxis were empty a third of the time in Manhattans central district where congestion problems usually take place. （Serious efficiency problem）

Local people who support the introduction of this legislation are saying that Uber brought negative change in the transportation industry. For example， Six professional drivers， including 3 taxi drivers， have commit suicide for their financial distress from the changing transportation market. On the contrary， this policy also benefit many people， such as people who have no access to public transit and black passengers as they can hardly get a yellow taxi cab in New York .

Impact of ride-hailing service on the society 

Household vehicles

Martin and Shaheen discover that ride-hailing reduced the average number of vehicles per household from 0.55 to 0.29 （a reduction of 0.26 vehicles）. Consequently， the more frequently an adopter uses ride-hailing services， the more likely they were to have reduced their household vehicles， which at the same time results in the decrease in number of cars on the street. One of the positive impacts of this is that the environment can be protected as less emission is created.

Taxi market

In New York， number of taxi drivers decreased substantially after the introduction of Uber in 2011 though it rebounded over subsequent years. Also， taxi drivers start to work more hours while the number of rides and hourly earnings declines.

Concomitant government policies

Both congestion pricing and enforced priority lanes can serve as effective measures to ensure that scarce roadway space is used effectively， which means that vehicles that are carrying sufficient number of passengers can be prioritized in limited road infrastructure and expanding population.

Social impact of government policies

Ride-sharing services becomingtaxi？

Ride-Sharing cars become more and more similar to the regular taxi， causing dissatisfaction among people. For instance， the price of rides for hires used to be very cheap， whereas currently， price of ride-hailing services is increased forcibly by government policy to reach a balance between taxi and ride-hailing market.

Methods and Survey details

We carried out a questionnaire to collect data.      

Interpretation of Data

91 people take our questionnaire. 55.6% of male respondentsprefer ride-hailingservices， butif the priceisincreasedsharply， 66.67% of male respondentswill no longer use ride-hailingservicesany more. Generally， the usage of ride-hailing services is price elastic. Therefore， government may control ride-hailing services by changing the price of these services. In general， male respondents are more sensitive towards the price.

However， it seems like that female respondents pay more attention to the safety problems instead of price and wait time when they are choosing a way of traveling around the city. 5/6 of females think that taxis are much safer than ride-hailing services. Therefore we can deduce that this may influence the frequency of taking a taxi each week among females. There are even 3.13% of female respondents take a taxi for 11-20 times a week while no male will do that.

To conclude， ride-hailing companies should start to consider how to increase their credibility and avoid safety problems. If they put more efforts in controlling their drivers（legal license）， they can bring lots of positive impacts on the society and those safety problems can be avoided efficiently.

Conclusion

After this research， we hope that in the near future， substantial research will be done to create a model that maximizes the efficiency of ride-hailing economy and minimizes congestion. As a result， traveling from one location to another will not only be cheaper but also faster. At the same time， more efforts should be put in to increase the safety of ride-hailing services.

林楚喬

年级：10年级

学校：深圳国际交流学院

这是我第一次尝试写一个研究论文，学到了很多研究方法和写作技巧。通过这次研究，我阅读了大量的资料文献以及新闻报道。在前人的研究文章里面找到能够支撑我们研究理论内容，并学着进行归纳总结。同时我们也了解如何进行收集数据（派发问卷），得出结论，从而更好的阐释我们的研究论点。总而言之，十分感激Professor Lyon一直以来的耐心的教导以及帮助！希望下次做研究的时候，能更好地运用我这次学到的所有东西！