Understanding factors that impact ridesourcing service usage frequency: a case study in Shanghai

This study investigates the influencing factors that impact ridesourcing service usage frequency and explore the potential similarities and differences among groups of population based on their primary usage purposes. A revealed-preference survey developed for this study was conducted among 783 ridesourcing service users from Shanghai, China in September 2020. Separate random parameters ordered probit models were estimated for users with different primary purposes of usage to capture unobserved heterogeneity. The identified influencing factors include travelers’ sociodemographic characteristics, reasons to choose ridesourcing services, and other behavioral characteristics. In addition, the impacts of these contributing factors were different based on their primary usage purpose. The model estimation and descriptive statistics findings suggest that groups of ridesourcing service users may respond differently to various types of promotional strategies. The study insights may be used to design future strategies that can potentially improve the service usage frequency of existing users and attract new users.