Exploring variations in vehicle-miles traveled among latent classes of shared mobility users in California

Growth in both the prevalence and utilization of shared mobility services has prompted investigations into their impact on travel behavior. Prior studies exploring the impacts of these services on vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) tend to focus on a single service. This study examines the impact of the use of five shared mobility services (car-sharing, ride-hailing, shared ride-hailing, bike-sharing, and shared e-scooters) on VMT among California residents using data from a web-based survey. Latent class cluster analysis is applied to identify latent classes of respondents based on the shared mobility service(s) that they use, and an exogenous switching model is estimated to explore whether the determinants of VMT vary across the latent classes of shared mobility users. The results demonstrate that VMT and its determinants differ substantially across the four latent classes identified through the application of LCCA. Notably, the results underscore that promoting the use of shared mobility services alone is unlikely to produce reductions in VMT. The exogenous switching model is then used to calculate average treatment effects and conduct a sensitivity analysis. The results of these analyses shed light on the extent to which changes in built environment and land-use attributes produce reductions in VMT.