Investigating the Influential Factors of Ride-Hailing Usage Frequency in the Post-Pandemic Era

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on public travel and has significantly altered people’s travel behavior. By comparing the travel behaviors of ride-hailing passengers before and after the pandemic (i.e., the pre-pandemic era and the post-pandemic era), it is possible to effectively identify the changes in their travel patterns and thus deeply understand the changes in individual travel habits in the post-pandemic era. Using data collected in Nanjing, China, this paper develops two ordered logit models to examine the impact mechanism of multi-dimensional influential factors on the trip frequency of ride-hailing users before and after the pandemic. The results reveal the following: (1) Before the pandemic, the increase in waiting time promoted the usage frequency of ride-hailing users, while in the post-pandemic era, the increase in waiting time reduces the travel frequency of ride-hailing users. (2) Before the pandemic, the increase in prices led to a decrease in ride-hailing users’ usage frequency, while it presents a push effect in the post-pandemic era. (3) In the post-pandemic era, ride-hailing users are more concerned about personal safety, avoiding conversing with the driver and touching objects in the car. Finally, some strategies, such as increasing awareness of personal information protection and security, optimizing waiting times, and improving the hygiene standards of ride-hailing, are proposed to assist transportation network companies in operating and restoring ride-hailing services in the post-pandemic era.