Factors Surrounding Child Seat Usage in Rideshare Services

This project represents a collaborative, multimodal effort to understand the current state of child passenger safety with respect to rideshare vehicles, with the aim of using this information to develop an effective set of outreach tools. The project team included faculty and student members from the Virginia Tech and Texas A&M Transportation Institutes. Project phases included an in-depth review of the child passenger safety regulatory literature across the United States, a series of focus groups with rideshare riders and drivers, a nationwide internet survey of riders’ and drivers’ knowledge and attitudes toward child passenger safety, and the development of an informational website with a corresponding media outreach campaign. Researchers found that there is a general lack of knowledge of and awareness about the issues surrounding transporting children in this new transportation paradigm, and efforts must continue from both educational and regulatory perspectives to clarify in what ways parents and rideshare drivers can and must safely transport children.