Carpooling Services Survey: App Users More Likely to Share Rides

Carpooling is a concept that can potentially help consumers save money and the environment. But the amount of people carpooling has declined in recent years despite those potential benefits. According to a report from Planetizen, ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft could potentially reverse that trend. So how many consumers are interested in carpooling services like UberPOOL? We asked 1,000 respondents on October 12-15 about their thoughts on carpooling and ride sharing services.

Ride Sharing

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 11% of respondents said that they’ve used ride hailing apps like Uber or Lyft many times. 12% have used them once or twice. And 77% of consumers said they’ve never used ride sharing services. Of those who have used services like Uber and Lyft, 27% said that they’ve shared rides with other passengers many times. And 38% have done so once or twice. Alternatively, 36% of respondents said that they’ve ridden in regular taxis many times. And 40% have done so once or twice. Of those respondents, 16% said they’ve shared taxis with other people many times. 35% have done so once or twice. And 49% of taxi riders said they’ve never shared taxi rides with other people.

Carpooling Habits

When riding or driving in a personal vehicle, just 3% of respondents said that they always carpool with other people. 7% said that they carpool most of the time. 12% do so about half the time. 29% said that they rarely ever carpool. And 32% never carpool. In general, 73% of respondents agreed that carpooling is cost effective. Another 73% said that carpooling is good for the environment. However, just 38% of respondents said that they would like to carpool more often. And 36% said they would like to use a service that could make carpooling easier.

Carpooling Services

Looking forward, 27% of respondents said that they are likely to use ride sharing services like Uber or Lyft within the next year. And just 18% said that they are likely to use services like UberPOOL to carpool with other app users in that time frame.

Key Takeaways

There aren’t as many consumers who regularly use services like Uber and Lyft as there are those who use regular taxis or personal vehicles. But those who do use ride sharing services seem to be more likely to carpool with others, whether it’s people they know or through a carpooling service like UberPOOL. Uber already offers incentives to people who are willing to share rides with other passengers in their area. But there are more consumers who say they would like to carpool more who haven’t even used services like Uber and Lyft at all. So if Uber and similar companies could highlight how easy it is to carpool with others using their services, it could potentially attract some new riders and drivers who are interested in the financial and environmental benefits of carpooling but who never really considered using ride sharing services for that purpose. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Uber taxi ad by Alper Cugun under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on October 12-15 via AYTM’s online survey panel.