Is Uber a Substitute or Complement for Public Transit?

Authors

Jonathan D. Hall, University of Toronto
Craig Palsson, Utah State UniversityFollow
Joseph Price, Brigham Young University

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Urban Economics

Volume

108

Publisher

Elsevier

Publication Date

10-5-2018

First Page

1

Last Page

38

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Abstract

How Uber affects public transit ridership is a relevant policy question facing cities worldwide. Theoretically, Uber’s effect on transit is ambiguous: while Uber is an alternative mode of travel, it can also increase the reach and flexibility of public transit’s fixed-route, fixed-schedule service. We estimate the effect of Uber on public transit ridership using a difference-in-differences design that exploits variation across U.S. metropolitan areas in both the intensity of Uber penetration and the timing of Uber entry. We find that Uber is a complement for the average transit agency, increasing ridership by five percent after two years. This average effect masks considerable heterogeneity, with Uber increasing ridership more in larger cities and for smaller transit agencies.

Recommended Citation

D. Hall, Jonathan & Palsson, Craig & Price, Joseph. (2018). Is Uber a substitute or complement for public transit?. Journal of Urban Economics. 108. 10.1016/j.jue.2018.09.003.