UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center

The UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) conducted an evaluation for the City of West Sacramento of the pilot Via Rideshare System, which began providing rides to customers in May of 2018 and is currently in operation. This analysis presents the findings from surveys and expert interviews. Surveys were deployed to both users and non-users of the pilot service in order to assess the behavioral impacts of the system on users and to evaluate non-user response to the system and why they had not yet opted to not use the service. The user survey, which collected 224 respondents, provided a number of key takeaways. First, the pilot served as a mode substitution with several personal vehicle modes, the most prominent of which was Uber/Lyft (45% mode substitution). Second, of the 39 respondents, 23% responded that they drove alone at least once fewer every week or greater in response to using Via. Third, of 35 respondents, 49% reported that the pilot service significantly improved their child’s mobility and accessibility. Via was reported to improve quality of life by 57% of respondents. These results, amongst others discussed in the report, show that users reported that the service was impacting their behavior and quality of life.