For decades, taxis have provided for-hire vehicle service without significant competition from other modes. But in 2012, ride-hail services such as Uber and Lyft upended the taxi business model by connecting riders to drivers through smartphone applications. Since then, few studies have considered how taxis compare to their new competition or how service quality varies across the two modes. We use data from 1680 ride-hail and taxi trips taken in a Los Angeles audit study to ask: how do service qualities—including trip price, reliability, and accountability—vary across ride-hailing (Uber and Lyft) and taxis? We find that, for the same origin and destination pair, ridehail users pay 40% lower fares and wait about one-quarter of the time compared to taxis. In addition, ride-hailing nearly guaranteed a ride, while about one in five taxi riders were never picked up. We utilize semi-structured interviews of frequent taxi and ride-hail users to examine potential explanations of the stark quantitative differences observed across modes. Findings reveal that, despite technological disruption, travelers continue to prioritize the long-standing tenets of transportation services: affordability, reliability, and accountability. Ride-hailing successfully implemented technologies to deliver on these traveler priorities, while taxis have largely failed to capitalize on new technologies. Findings suggest that taxis will need to do more than lower prices or put more cars on the road if they hope to compete with ride-hailing services, and that both new and old modes should harness technology to deliver on long-standing transportation service goals.

中文翻译：

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欢呼改变：比较洛杉矶的出租车和乘车服务质量

几十年来，出租车一直提供出租汽车服务，而没有与其他模式产生重大竞争。但在 2012 年，Uber 和 Lyft 等叫车服务通过智能手机应用程序将乘客与司机联系起来，从而颠覆了出租车的商业模式。从那时起，很少有研究考虑出租车与新竞争对手的比较，或者两种模式的服务质量如何变化。我们使用洛杉矶审计研究中 1680 次打车和出租车出行的数据来询问：服务质量（包括旅行价格、可靠性和问责制）如何因打车（优步和 Lyft）和出租车而异？我们发现，对于相同的出发地和目的地对，与出租车相比，ridehail 用户支付的票价低 40%，等待的时间减少了大约四分之一。此外，网约车几乎可以保证乘车，而大约五分之一的出租车乘客从未被接走。我们利用对频繁出租车和叫车用户的半结构化访谈来检查对不同模式观察到的明显数量差异的潜在解释。调查结果显示，尽管技术中断，旅行者仍然优先考虑交通服务的长期原则：负担能力、可靠性和责任感。网约车成功地实施了技术来满足这些旅行者的优先考虑，而出租车在很大程度上未能利用新技术。调查结果表明，如果出租车希望与叫车服务竞争，他们需要做的不仅仅是降低价格或让更多的汽车上路，而且新旧模式都应该利用技术来实现长期的交通服务目标。我们利用对频繁出租车和叫车用户的半结构化访谈来检查对不同模式观察到的明显数量差异的潜在解释。调查结果表明，尽管技术中断，旅行者仍然优先考虑交通服务的长期原则：可负担性、可靠性和问责制。网约车成功地实施了技术来满足这些旅行者的优先考虑，而出租车在很大程度上未能利用新技术。调查结果表明，如果出租车希望与叫车服务竞争，他们需要做的不仅仅是降低价格或让更多的汽车上路，而且新旧模式都应该利用技术来实现长期的交通服务目标。我们利用频繁的出租车和乘车用户的半结构化访谈来检查对不同模式观察到的明显数量差异的潜在解释。调查结果表明，尽管技术中断，旅行者仍然优先考虑交通服务的长期原则：可负担性、可靠性和问责制。网约车成功地实施了技术来满足这些旅行者的优先考虑，而出租车在很大程度上未能利用新技术。调查结果表明，如果出租车希望与叫车服务竞争，他们需要做的不仅仅是降低价格或让更多的汽车上路，而且新旧模式都应该利用技术来实现长期的交通服务目标。