Most of the current literature on transportation network companies (TNCs) or ride-hailing services (e.g., Uber, Lyft) has focused on major metropolitan areas, though TNCs are currently extending their services to smaller cities. This point is particularly salient when examining their impacts on alternative transportation modes, such as public transit which operates very differently in small or medium-sized cities (e.g., less frequent services, shorter routes). This study is the first to use micro-level public transit data to examine the effects of Uber on bus ridership in a medium-sized urban area. Uber entered the neighboring cities of Eugene and Springfield, Oregon on July 23, 2014, but abruptly stopped operating on April 5, 2015 after being sued by the City of Eugene. Consequently, this study leverages a natural experiment since the period during which Uber was active is plausibly exogenous to other factors that affect bus ridership. Results show that when Uber operated in treatment cities, bus ridership reduced by 5.4 percent (p < 0.01) relative to control cities and when Uber was not active, though the magnitude of these reductions varied within and across days, as well as across neighborhoods. Interestingly, our results also suggest that even after Uber exited, these reductions in bus ridership persisted. Results highlight the importance of utilizing micro-level bus data and have important policy implications for how smaller cities could stem possible reductions in public transit after TNCs enter the market.

当前，有关运输网络公司（TNC）或乘车服务（例如Uber，Lyft）的大多数文献都集中在主要大都市地区，尽管跨国公司目前正在将服务范围扩展到较小的城市。当检查它们对替代交通方式的影响时，这一点尤为突出，例如在中小城市中公共交通的运行方式截然不同（例如，服务频率较低，路线较短）。这项研究是第一个使用微观公共交通数据来研究Uber对中等城市地区公交车乘车率的影响的研究。Uber于2014年7月23日进入邻近的尤金和俄勒冈州斯普林菲尔德市，但在被尤金市起诉后于2015年4月5日突然停止运营。所以，这项研究利用了一项自然实验，因为Uber活跃的时期可能是影响公交乘车的其他因素的外生因素。结果显示，在优步在治疗城市中运营时，公共汽车的乘车人数减少了5.4％（ 相对于对照城市以及Uber不活跃时，p <0.01），尽管这些减少的幅度在几天之内，几天之内以及各社区之间有所不同。有趣的是，我们的研究结果还表明，即使在Uber退出之后，公交车乘客人数的减少仍然持续存在。结果突出了利用微型公交数据的重要性，并且对跨国公司进入市场后较小的城市如何阻止公共交通的可能减少具有重要的政策意义。