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Poster Presentation at the Conference, with a Paper in Conference Proceedings

Transportation Safety

Session: Meet the Author - Poster Session PS-6

1374165 - Do ridesharing services reduce traffic crashes and injuries? A case study

Friday, June 16, 2023
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM CST
Room: Governor's Grand Ballroom
Salon ABC
TRACK: Poster Presentation with a Paper in the Proceedings
Demand-responsive ridesharing services have become popular in recent years. Several cities are using DRT services to augment existing public transit services. Empirical studies have explored the impacts of demand-responsive ridesharing services, such as congestion, travel patterns, traffic flows, and emissions. However, how these services impact traffic safety in terms of traffic crashes and injuries could not get much attention in the past. Previous studies on the safety effects of ridesharing services are based on the unavailability of a service. We hypothesize that the presence or absence of ridesharing services cannot significantly impact traffic safety. Hence the aim of this research is to investigate the impacts of ridesharing services on traffic safety, using RideAustin, a ridesharing service in Austin, TX, as a case study. The results show that the number of traffic crashes decreased significantly when the number of trips in a block group increased to a certain threshold. In addition, just the mere presence of the service or very low ridership (less than one ride per block group) was found to have no significant impact on traffic safety. The findings of this study will help policymakers to better understand the safety impacts of ridesharing services and develop policies to enhance ridesharing safety.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:
  • Understand the impacts of ridesharing services on traffic safety.
  • Identify the factors affecting safety operations of ridesharing service.
  • Understand the impacts of ridesharing services on traffic safety.
  • Identify the factors affecting the safety operations of ridesharing services.
  • Identify the impacts of demand-responsive services on traffic crashes and injuries.