Ride-Hailing Service Adoption and Local Context in Motorcycle-Based Societies: Case Study in Hanoi, Vietnam

The ride-hailing service (RHS) has emerged as a major form of daily travel in many Southeast Asian cities where motorcycles are extensively used. This study aims to analyze the local context in motorcycle-based societies, which may affect the establishment of travelers' choice set after the appearance of RHSs. In particular, it empirically compares three types of choice-set structures in the context of urban travel mode choice by estimating standard logit and nested logit models to test six hypotheses on the associations of RHS adoption with its determinants. Revealed preference data of 449 trips from both RHS users and non-RHS users were collected through a face-to-face interview-based questionnaire survey in Hanoi, Vietnam, in December 2020. The results of model estimations revealed: (1) a substitutional effect for two-wheelers but not for four-wheelers, (2) a significant positive influence of car ownership on car RHS adoption but not on motorcycle RHS adoption, (3) significantly high sensitivity to travel time of motorcycle RHS but not of car RHS, (4) a significant negative effect of traffic congestion on car RHS adoption but an insignificant one on motorcycle RHS adoption, and (5) a significant positive association of an individual's experience in using a smartphone with car RHSs but insignificant association with motorcycle RHSs. Our findings suggest that transportation policies of RHS motorcycles should be different from those of RHS cars because of the heterogeneity in travel behaviors of RHS users between them. They also indicate that the transition from motorcycles to cars as well as the difference in service availability among different types of RHSs should be incorporated into the development of transportation policies in Southeast Asian cities.