Analyzing the relationship between bus and ride-hailing use in a large emerging economy city: A bivariate ordered probit model application

This study analyzes the use of ride-hailing and bus services from a multi-modal user perspective by jointly modeling individuals’ monthly frequency of use of both bus and ride-hailing services. A bivariate ordered probit model is estimated to capture the influence of socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics as well as unobserved factors that may simultaneously influence the travel frequency by both modes. We use data collected in a survey of travelers from Porto Alegre, Brazil. The results characterize the profile of local frequent ride-hailing users as young, medium-income, self-employed individuals with a propensity toward the use of technology and a low inclination for car ownership. Most importantly, we observe that after controlling for unobserved factors that simultaneously contribute to higher trip frequencies by both modes, frequent bus users demonstrate a lower propensity toward ride-hailing use.