Do For-Hire Vehicles Provide First Mile/Last Mile Access to Transit?

Abstract

This research examines how for-hire vehicles (Uber, Lyft and taxicabs) are combined with other transport modes, both in daily travel tours and as parts of individual trips. Using data from the National Household Travel Survey, we find that about 75 percent of for-hire tours include another travel mode, and 27 percent of for-hire tours include transit. The California add-on sample allows us to look specifically at for-hire use for first mile/last mile access to transit. There, we find that about 11 percent of all for-hire tours in California include first mile/last mile transit access. However, these represent less than three percent of all tours that feature transit, and the sample size is very small. Lastly, we examine the distribution of non-auto and for-hire use within tours by time of day, and show that for-hire use exceeds other non-auto use in evenings, when transit service is typically reduced. These findings suggest that for-hire vehicles can act as complements to other modes both for individual trips, such as first mile access, and at the tour level, where for-hire vehicles may be used for some trips in conjunction with other modes within a travel day.