Research On The Impact Of Ride-hailing Services On Urban Traditional Travel Modes And Traffic Congestion

The rapid development of ride-hailing services not only enrich the urban travel,but also have an significant impact on the choice of citizens’ s travel modes and urban traffic congestion.The entry of ride-hailing services will have an impact on the use of traditional travel modes in urban areas,such as the use of public transport,private cars,and traditional taxis,and further more may have an indirect impact on traffic congestion in urban areas.It is of great significance for urban public transport operators,car dealers,and traditional taxi operators to clarify the impact of ride-hailing services on traditional travel modes such as urban public transport,private cars,and traditional taxis.The degree and mechanism of the impact of ride-hailing services on traffic congestion are related to urban traffic health,and are also related to the formulation of relevant regulations on ride-hailing services,which,therefore,are of extremely great concern to traffic managers.However,there is a lack of systematic and rigorous research on the impact of ride-hailing services on the main urban travel modes and urban traffic congestion.Existing research is very controversial,and there is no widely recognized conclusion.Therefore,this paper designs a scientific and rigorous empirical study to explore the impact of ride-hailing services on the use of urban public transport,private cars,traditional taxis,and urban traffic congestion,and analyzes the impact mechanism of ride-hailing services on urban traffic congestion by taking the impact of ride-hailing services on the use of urban public transport,private cars and traditional taxi as the intermediary factor.The details are as follows:First of all,in 2014,seven cities in China had introduced large-scale ride-hailing services,which provides a "quasi-natural experiment" to study the impact of ride-hailing services on urban public transport use.Aiming at the problem of "replacing" or "supplementing" urban public transport usage,this paper use the balanced panel data from 109 cities in China from2010 to 2016 to do empirical analysis,and conduct dynamic effect analysis and test the heterogeneity of city categories.The results show that: the ride-hailing services have a significant "substitution" effect on the use of urban public transport;and the "substitution" effect of ride-hailing services on the use of public transport is more serious in megacities;as time goes on,the "substitution" effect of ride-hailing services on the use of public transport shows a law of first strengthening and then weakening.The study reveals the laws and characteristics of the impact of ride-hailing services on public transport usage,and puts forward suggestions for urban public transport operators and traffic policymakers according to the research results.Secondly,taking 109 cities from 2010 to 2016 as samples,this paper makes an empirical analysis on the impact of ride-hailing service on private car use in urban areas.The heterogeneity analysis is also conducted according to the time of the entry of ride-hailing services and the location of these cities.The results show that: the entry of ride-hailing services will significantly reduce the use of the private car in urban areas;further studies show that the effect is more obvious in eastern cities of China,while in western cities,the entry of ride-hailing services have no significant impact on the use of the private car in urban areas;as time goes on,the degree of ride-hailing services reducing the use of the private car in urban areas initially strengthened and then weakened.The conclusions reveal the laws and characteristics of the impact of ride-hailing services on private car use in urban areas in China’s cities.Based on these conclusions,this paper puts forward suggestions for urban car dealers and traffic policymakers.Thirdly,the impact of ride-hailing services on traditional taxi use is studied.Based on the data from 44 cities in China from 2010 to 2016,this paper uses a multi-period difference-in-differences method to analyze the impact of ride-hailing services on the use of traditional taxis,and makes a heterogeneity test according to the urban mobile phone penetration rate.The results show that: ride-hailing services have quite a large,negative impact on the use of traditional taxis,and this impact is more serious in cities with high mobile phone penetration rates.The conclusions reveal the impact of ride-hailing services on traditional taxis,and provide suggestions for traditional taxi operators and traffic policymakers.Fourthly,aiming at the problem of "aggravating" or "alleviating" urban traffic congestion,this paper uses the difference-in-differences method to deal with the balanced panel data from58 cities from 2014 to 2016 for empirical analysis.The results show that: the entry of ride-hailing services will "aggravate" urban traffic congestion;ride-hailing services will have a negative impact on the traffic condition of medium and high traffic congestion cities,which means that it will aggravate urban traffic congestion,but has no significant impact on the traffic condition of low traffic congestion cities;over time,the degree of "aggravating" urban traffic congestion of ride-hailing services have a weakening trend.The results reveal the influences of ride-hailing services on traffic congestion in China’s cities.Finally,the paper explores the impact of ride-hailing services on urban traffic congestion by influencing traditional travel modes.This part is an important scientific issue in this paper,which deeply reveals the mechanism of ride-hailing services affecting traffic congestion.Besides,it has far-reaching practical significance,which has an enlightenment effect on traffic managers to formulate relevant policies of ride-hailing to ensure the healthy development of ride-sharing.This paper constructs a mediating effect model from the following aspects: “ride-hailing services--urban public transport usage--urban traffic congestion”;“ride-hailing services--urban private car usage--urban traffic congestion”;“ride-hailing services--traditional taxis usage--urban traffic congestion”;“ride-hailing services--urban public transport usage,urban private car usage,traditional taxis usage--urban traffic congestion”,that is to say,taking “urban public transport use”,“urban private car use”,“traditional taxi use”,“urban public transport use,private car use and taxi use ”as mediating variables,this paper analyzes the impact mechanism of ride-hailing services on urban traffic congestion.The results show that: the entry of ride-hailing services will directly aggravate urban traffic congestion;the mechanism analysis shows that the entry of ride-hailing services aggravates urban traffic congestion by reducing the use of urban public transport,reduces urban traffic congestion by reducing the use of the private car in urban areas,and reduces the use of traditional taxis,which has no significant impact on urban traffic congestion,among which the use of urban public transport has the greatest impact,followed by the use of the private car in urban areas,while the impact of traditional taxi use can be ignored.Comprehensive analysis shows that the entry of ride-hailing services aggravates urban traffic congestion.The conclusion of the study comprehensively and deeply analyzes the mechanism of ride-hailing services "aggravating" urban traffic congestion,and puts forward suggestions for urban traffic policymakers.