Evaluation of Cooperation Strategies for Public Transport and Ride-hailing services

Abstract

Ride-hailing services are continuously gaining popularity in urban cities due to their flexibility and responsiveness. Public transport agencies spot the chance to cooperate with Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) to improve service quality and operational efficiency. While a series of cooperation strategies are proposed and piloted in some cities, little is known regarding how transportation systems respond to these strategies. We proposed three cooperation strategies: no ride-hailing subsidy; providing ride-hailing subsidy and canceling bus; providing ride-hailing subsidy and adjusting bus service frequency. A travelers’ choice model for transportation corridors incorporating ride-hailing, public transport, and car is established to analyze the system performance under different strategies. The numerical experiments show that ride-hailing subsidies can reduce the average travel cost and improve public transport ridership in low-demand areas. However, the subsidy strategy can lead to a negative effect on transportation systems in highdemand areas due to limited investment and ride-hailing service supply.