Drivers of ridesharing adoption: Insights from university students and public employees in a single urban context

Ridesharing is widely promoted as a sustainable commuting solution, yet its adoption remains uneven and poorly understood at the organisational level. This study examines how institutional context, commuting routines, and individual perceptions jointly shape willingness to participate in ridesharing by comparing three public institutions within the same city. Drawing on a large-scale survey ( N = 1669) from Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, the analysis distinguishes between current users, potential users, and non-users, and applies statistical tests and multinomial logistic regression to identify systematic differences in motivations, perceived barriers, and travel behaviour. The results demonstrate that ridesharing adoption is driven primarily by commuting distance and routine compatibility, rather than by general pro-environmental attitudes. While current users report experience-based benefits such as cost savings and a more pleasant commute, potential users tend to overestimate anticipated benefits, and non-users largely perceive ridesharing as incompatible with short trips, trip chaining, and flexibility needs. Importantly, substantial differences emerge even between similar public institutions within the same urban context, underscoring the role of institution-specific mobility arrangements and workforce composition. By revealing how organisational context filters ridesharing adoption at the intra-urban level, the study advances understanding of shared mobility beyond individual attitudes. The findings indicate that ridesharing is best approached as a targeted, complementary mobility option, with implications for platform operators, employers, and policymakers seeking to design context-sensitive and experience-oriented ridesharing programmes.