Estimating the effect of ride-hailing on public transportation

Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing companies have transformed the transportation marketplace in over eight-hundred cities around the world. These firms' entry into cities has been controversial.

They have been credited with providing a reliable and affordable transportation option, serving neglected areas of cities, and providing meaningful employment.

Against these benefits, however, they have been accused of being unsafe, creating congestion, destroying stable jobs, and flouting the law.

Governments have struggled to decide how to regulate these companies, in part because of a poor understanding of the actual impacts ride-hailing is having.The proposed research program will increase our understanding of how ride-hailing is affecting cities. Specifically, the project will estimate how ride-hailing affects public transportation.

Theoretically, this is unclear since while Uber is an alternative form of travel, it can also increase the reach and flexibility of public transportation.

To measure the effect of UBer on transit, I will estimate how the introduction of new subway stops affects Uber ridership. This will shed light on whether Uber and public transportation are complements or substitutes. This project will use Uber's proprietary data.

I have signed a Data USage Agreement with Uber allowing access to their data.The project will be hosted by the department of Spatial Economics at VU Amsterdam, which arguably has the world's leading research group of transportation economists.