Journey to Work question: are ridehailing apps like uber & lyft considered "taxicab" or "other means" for Table B08301?

Coincidentally, we were looking at the same topic yesterday ourselves. I think this is an ambiguous area, maybe more than I realized. Firstly, Uber, Lyft and ridehail services generally are no where mentioned in the ACS questionnaire or definitions.

Journey to Work data is the result of two ACS questions, one about the mode of transport and a second that applies if the persons "rode to work in a car, truck or van". My working assumption until yesterday was that someone using a ridehail service would pick taxi as the primary means of journey to work. Now I am not so sure.

There could be a generational difference at work here. I would put down taxi if asked. Now I'm a late boomer. My late millennial intern tells me that from her perspective (and presumably that of people in her cohort) this is not the right answer, To them an Uber or Lyft ride occurs in a private vehicle. Thus, they would pick "car, truck or van" as the means of journey to work then indicate that more than one person rode in the vehicle. The result is that her ride would be classed as a carpool.

Admittedly, we are not seeing a clear sign of an increase in carpooling in our data. There was a noticeable uptick in carpooling in the 2018 1 year ACS data, but given the size of the margin of error this is not definitive, at least not yet. However, this is the first big increase in carpooling here in decades.

Coincidentally, we were looking at the same topic yesterday ourselves. I think this is an ambiguous area, maybe more than I realized. Firstly, Uber, Lyft and ridehail services generally are no where mentioned in the ACS questionnaire or definitions.

Journey to Work data is the result of two ACS questions, one about the mode of transport and a second that applies if the persons "rode to work in a car, truck or van". My working assumption until yesterday was that someone using a ridehail service would pick taxi as the primary means of journey to work. Now I am not so sure.

There could be a generational difference at work here. I would put down taxi if asked. Now I'm a late boomer. My late millennial intern tells me that from her perspective (and presumably that of people in her cohort) this is not the right answer, To them an Uber or Lyft ride occurs in a private vehicle. Thus, they would pick "car, truck or van" as the means of journey to work then indicate that more than one person rode in the vehicle. The result is that her ride would be classed as a carpool.

Admittedly, we are not seeing a clear sign of an increase in carpooling in our data. There was a noticeable uptick in carpooling in the 2018 1 year ACS data, but given the size of the margin of error this is not definitive, at least not yet. However, this is the first big increase in carpooling here in decades.