Impacts of trip characteristics and weather condition on ride-sourcing network: Evidence from Uber and Lyft

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of intracity routes and weather conditions on pick-up waiting time, trip duration, and ride fare with a focus on the ride-sourcing mode in the city of Philadelphia, in the U.S. For our analysis, ride estimate data has been collected from Uber and Lyft developers’ Application Program Interfaces (API), and weather information has been collected from Yahoo weather API during summer 2018. It should be noted that the generated trips for both ride-sourcing services are for solo and pool rides. Time fixed effect ordinary least squares model was adopted in this paper for analysis purposes. The results show that trips originated from the city center zone have higher fares compared to the trips head toward the city center. Further, it is observed that trips with origins and destinations close to the city center zone have longer trip durations. Our findings confirm that pick-up waiting time, trip duration, and fare increase in extreme weather conditions during weekdays; while they decrease during weekends. In the end, comparing Uber with its main competitor, Lyft, shows that Uber rides are faster than Lyft. However, Lyft rides are cheaper and more accessible compared to Uber in both pool and solo rides.