What actually makes someone choose a pooled ride over all the alternatives?
The standard transport economics answer to "why do people use a mode?" is: because it is faster, cheaper, or more convenient than the alternative. These factors matter for pooled rides too. But this paper — the broadest analysis yet of pooled-ride users in a developing megacity — finds that the picture is considerably richer.
Mexico City's public transit system carries half the city's 34 million daily trips. It is also, by independent assessments, one of the most dangerous urban transit environments in the world. Ninety percent of PT users report feeling unsafe. Twenty-three percent of women avoid PT entirely for personal security reasons. Sexual harassment is frequent across all modes, from metro to minibuses to BRT.
Into this environment, Jetty offers something qualitatively different: a seat you book in advance, a vehicle you can track in real time, a driver with a work contract. For many users — especially women — this is not merely a convenience upgrade. It is the difference between a trip that feels manageable and one that feels threatening.
Women respondents reported using the service for security against harassment at six times the rate of men — and they still pay the same price, despite earning on average 21% less.
What users say — and what the models confirm
Users could cite up to six reasons from a list of 14. The top four — chosen by more than half of all respondents — tell a coherent story about a city where formal transit has quality and safety deficits.
The 16% who cite harassment security represent an absolute signal: women reported this reason at 6× the male rate. The structural gender gap this reflects is the paper's central finding.
Gender, demographics, and what drives each choice
The models (binary logit and hybrid choice) reveal how demographic and trip characteristics shape why users choose Jetty, and what they do on board. Explore the findings by selecting a factor below.
Model-Based Factors Explorer
BINARY LOGIT & ICLV MODELS — ABOUELELA ET AL. 2025, TABLES 5–7
What people do while riding — a window into perceived comfort and safety
What passengers do on board is not just a curiosity — it is evidence of their perceived comfort and security level. In a vehicle you feel unsafe in, you do not close your eyes. You do not read. You stay alert.
The most revealing finding. Women are significantly more likely to sleep than men — the model links this directly to the safety of the service relative to CDMX public transit. People do not sleep in places they feel threatened.
Productivity and entertainment on a 46-minute average journey. Using a phone requires physical safety (risk of theft) and cognitive ease. That 71% do this comfortably in a shared vehicle in Mexico City is itself a data point about perceived security.
A restful, passive activity consistent with the early-morning, long-distance commute profile. 75% of trips are under 49 minutes; these are dedicated commute journeys where decompression is valued.
Requires concentration and a stable, comfortable environment. The fact that nearly 1 in 4 riders reads for pleasure contrasts sharply with the crowded, standing-room-only reality of many colectivos.
Reclaiming commute time as productive work time. Combined with studying (8%), approximately 1 in 5 riders turns the journey into useful working or learning time — something impossible while driving.
The lowest-scored activity. Pooled rides are not primarily a social experience. People value the convenience and safety — not the company. This finding aligns with similar results from Europe and North America on ride-pooling socialization.
What 864 users said in their own words
An optional open-ended question generated 864 Spanish-language responses. Using N-gram analysis and AFINN lexicon scoring, the researchers extracted patterns invisible to the closed survey questions.
Women's scores are statistically significantly higher than men's (p = 0.006). Bus users score higher than van users — possibly because buses have more personal space at lower cost (40% seat utilisation vs. 60% for vans). The gender gap in sentiment mirrors the gender gap in security reasons: women have more to gain from Jetty, because they have more to lose in the absence of it.
The N-gram word network surfaced key themes that closed survey questions could not capture. The most frequent word associations:
Requests to expand routes dominated the geographic comments — most concentrated in the north of the city, where PT coverage is worst. This represents both a satisfaction signal (people want more of it) and an equity signal (the areas with greatest need are where coverage is thinnest).
How Jetty differs from the global pooled-ride profile — and what that teaches us
What this means for city planning and shared mobility policy
The service is currently affordable only for middle and high-income users. Women who use it for safety reasons earn on average 21% less than men — and pay the same fare. If pooled rides are to function as equitable infrastructure rather than a premium service, subsidy mechanisms targeting these groups are essential. France has piloted carpooling subsidies with some success; Mexico City needs an equivalent policy conversation.
This paper documents in detail how unsafe formal transit drives women toward premium alternatives they can barely afford. Addressing sexual harassment and theft in the metro and colectivos is not separable from the question of shared mobility sustainability. It is, in fact, a precondition for it.
User comments overwhelmingly requested route expansion in the north — exactly where PT accessibility is lowest and the urban marginalisation index is highest. Planning pooled-ride routes to match unmet transit demand, rather than duplicating well-served corridors, maximises both impact and equity.
Using Jetty requires a smartphone, a bank account, and a credit card. These exclude significant segments of CDMX's population — particularly low-income, elderly, and unbanked residents. Any policy push to integrate pooled rides into the formal transport system must include physical access points and alternative payment mechanisms.
Unlike UberPOOL, Jetty operates on fixed routes and schedules — users know their pickup time and route in advance, guaranteed seating is possible, and detour uncertainty is eliminated. The paper's findings suggest these operational characteristics are a key driver of user satisfaction, particularly for time-sensitive work commuters.
Read the complete study
This explainer covers the paper's main findings. The full paper includes complete model tables, the exploratory factor analysis results, the N-gram word network, a detailed taxonomy of the pooled-ride ecosystem, and an extensive literature synthesis spanning 17 countries.
Read the Full Paper →