Reaching Your Destination: A Qualitative Study on Ridesharing as a Solution for First and Last-Mile Transportation Challenges

Sammanfattning: The study aims to explore the increasingly relevant and theoretically underexplored field of ridesharing as a solution for first and last-mile transportation, its success factors and challenges, as well as the process of integrating ridesharing into a public transport network. It utilizes a business model innovation framework as the theoretical basis to explore success factors as well as challenges when operating and setting up a ridesharing service. Further, the framework is developed and adapted to the topic at hand. To explore the research questions, an abductive approach was chosen. The empirical material was collected through eight semi-structured interviews with experts from academia, consultancy, public transport authorities, and companies active in the urban mobility sector. The empirical findings revealed a variety of factors influencing ridesharing success and its implementation into a public transport system. Today, different approaches seem to be successful, however, all interviewed experts highlighted the benefits of close collaboration between public and private organizations as well as openness towards technological innovation. Overall, it was found that Population Size and Density, Demand, Competition, Legislation and Political Environment, Business Model and Consumer Trends and Social Behavior are determining success factors of a ridesharing service. Furthermore, Technical challenges, Self Interest, Ecosystem Management, Complimentary Infrastructure, and Subsidies dominate the discussion when implementing ridesharing into a public transport system. In conclusion, ridesharing as a mode for First and Last-Mile mobility remains a novel solution, and its success depends on a variety of factors. The ultimate goal of reducing private car ownership as well as the potential of autonomous driving to unleash the full potential of the service will be governing the discussion over the coming years.