Modeling individuals’ willingness to share trips with strangers in an autonomous vehicle future

Abstract

With the era of fully automated vehicles (AVs) quickly approaching, ridesharing services could have an important role in increasing vehicle occupancy, reducing vehicle miles traveled, and improving traffic conditions. However, the extent to which these potentials can be achieved depends on consumers’ disposition to sharing rides. From a travel behavior perspective, two essential elements to the adoption of shared rides are individuals’ acceptance of increased travel times associated with pick-up/drop-off of other passengers and their approval of strangers sharing the same vehicle. The current study develops the notion of willingness to share (WTS), which represents the money value attributed..