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Analysis of institutional authors

Aguilera-Garcia, ACorresponding AuthorGomez, JAuthorVelazquez, GAuthorVassallo, JmAuthor

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Ridesourcing vs. traditional taxi services: Understanding users’ choices and preferences in Spain

Publicated to:Transportation Research Part A-Policy And Practice. 155 161-178 - 2022-01-01 155(), DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2021.11.002

Authors: Aguilera-Garcia, Alvaro; Gomez, Juan; Velazquez, Guillermo; Manuel Vassallo, Jose

Affiliations

Univ Politecn Madrid, Ctr Invest Transporte TRANSYT, Madrid, Spain - Author

Abstract

Both the traditional taxi and ridesourcing market provide similar on-demand door-to-door transportation services from the users’ viewpoint, although operate under different legal and regulatory frameworks. Ridesourcing has experienced notable growth in urban mobility in the last few years since it gives a convenient, on-demand door-to-door service, provides app-based real-time information about the trip, and offers flexible prices that vary according to the level of supply and demand at each moment. This new actor in urban mobility directly competes with taxis, a more regulated mode that has traditionally provided door-to-door trips. While competition between taxi and ridesourcing has generated great controversy in the public debate, little attention has been paid to the users’ viewpoint. Additionally, most of the scientific literature on travel behavior and ridesourcing focus on specific characteristics of these services, while scarce efforts have been devoted to study users’ choices and preferences towards ridesourcing vs. its main competitor, taxi services. To bridge this gap, this paper investigates the main factors (individual sociodemographic, mobility-related characteristics, psychological attitudes, etc.) determining individuals’ choices between ridesourcing and traditional taxis. To that end, a Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM) is carried out, based on the information collected from a survey campaign conducted in Spain. The results show that, from a behavioral perspective, people opened to technological innovation and with liberal thought (in the sense of being favorable to market openness) tend to use ridesourcing services more often than taxis. Our results also suggest a higher tendency to use ridesourcing among women, young people, and people using hailing services for leisure, recreational or social purposes. Interestingly, individuals having already used both taxi and ridesourcing in Spain, tend to rate higher the quality-of-service performance (driver and/or vehicle fleet) provided by ridesourcing compared to taxis.

Keywords

adoptionattitudesdemandgeneralized structural equation modelimpactlatent variablesmobilitymodelon-demand ride servicessystemstaxitraveltravel behavioruberBuilt environmentGeneralized structural equation modelLatent variablesOn-demand ride servicesRidesourcingTaxiTravel behavior

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Transportation Research Part A-Policy And Practice due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 33/380, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Economics. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.57. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 4.94 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 17.79 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-13, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 24
  • Scopus: 38
  • Google Scholar: 39
  • OpenCitations: 19

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-13:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 144.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 144 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (AGUILERA GARCIA, ALVARO) and Last Author (VASSALLO MAGRO, JOSE MANUEL).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been AGUILERA GARCIA, ALVARO.