Understanding Ride-Sharing Systems in Urban Areas: The Role of Location, Users and Barriers

The design and development of ride-sharing systems have been urged from the need to improve the performance of transport systems in urban areas and promote sustainability. Despite its significant potential, ride-sharing has demonstrated limited uptake so far, because of a set of barriers (technological and legal). This paper aims to provide a better understanding of ride-sharing systems through an extensive review of definitions, ride-sharing systems, legislation and user characteristics. Identified ride-sharing systems are analyzed in terms of their attributes such as operation status and location, distance of service and payment methods to provide an insight into local conditions. The legislative and regulatory framework related to ride-sharing for the EU27 countries and the UK is reviewed to understand potential barriers in ride-sharing implementation. Furthermore, this research identifies user trip purposes related to ride-sharing and defines ride-sharing user types. Four user types are defined to target when deploying ride-sharing services: 1) Household work user, 2) Solo work user, 3) Education user, and 4) Recreation/entertainment user.