How to promote the transition from solo driving to mobility services delivery? An empirical study focusing on ridesharing

The increasing number of private vehicles has caused severe traffic congestion and air pollution. As an innovative transportation mode, mobility services such as ridesharing have been considered as an alternative. However, it has been evidenced that most private vehicle owners would not switch from driving to using ridesharing because such options only attract those who never intend to own a car. Therefore, it is more meaningful for private vehicle owners to provide ridesharing services, also known as Hitch, which can improve urban traffic efficiency on the service supply side. This study outlines an empirical study which is conducted to assess drivers as a group, to examine the factors which influence their intention of ridesharing. A sample of 597 private vehicle owners in Tianjin, China, completed a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is implemented to analyze the proposed model, specially explore the mediating role of trust and habit. The results indicate that habit is the most important factor, which is mainly influenced by extrinsic motivation (i.e., instrumental motive). Furthermore, habit can increase trust in ridesharing, another important factor, which is mainly affected by intrinsic motivation (i.e., affective motive and responsibility). Therefore, this shows the relationship between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The findings in this paper have strong implications for both governments and platform developers, to promote the transition from solo driving to ridesharing to improve traffic condition and environmental pollution.