Evaluating the carbon emission impacts of shifting to ride-pooling: A user group perspective

Ride-pooling emerges as a shared mobility mode that has the potential to reduce congestion and carbon emissions. While previous studies have explored user heterogeneity in terms of travel behavior, trip purposes and socio-demographics using various methods, few have explicitly linked these user differences to the carbon effects of ride-pooling. This study aims to categorize ride-pooling users and assess their CO2 emission reduction capacity. First, indicators and covariates are extracted from trip and survey data of ride-pooling users in Mexico City, and a Latent Class Cluster Analysis is utilized to identify five user classes (i.e., Van-Preferred Travelers, Travel Time-Conscious Travelers, Morning Peak Commuters - Occasional Ride-pooling Users, Frequent Ride-pooling Travelers, and Formerly Private Travelers). Then, the CO2 reduction capacity of different user classes is obtained by comparing the emissions using ride-pooling and its alternative modes. The results show that Van-Preferred Travelers and Formerly Private Travelers can reduce CO2 emissions, while other classes of ride-pooling users increase emissions. In addition, the CO2 reduction capacity of high-income ride-pooling users is prominent, based on their replacement of car trips, while ride-pooling users that replace other modes of public transport due to personal security concerns (mostly women in our study) increase emissions, indicating the need to address the social and environmental sustainability of public transport and shared mobility in an integrated manner.