Shared-used Mobility: global generations and service perception

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Purpose
Urban mobility services offer the option of sharing rides among users, this type of service offers several benefits for urban traffic, for the environment and especially for the user who can profit from high quality services at lower costs. The emerging door-to-door sharing models allow passengers' pick-up and drop-off locations to be specified, which is advantageous over other transportation modals (d'Orey; Ferreira, 2014).
The essential pre-requisite for the emergence of these new mobility models is justified by the new possibilities that information and communication technologies currently offer for vehicles and also for users and operators in networks, providing access and fast connectivity between vehicles and smartphones via applications (Barbara; Fraedrich, 2016). Ride sharing systems allow users that do not know each other to be in the same vehicle according to route similarities (e.g. UberPool).
Palona (2016) describes different experiences of users regarding the degree of satisfaction with this model, being considered as uncertain according to the perception of the service.
These new technologies usages, as well as the users' perception regarding these sharing systems, may differ according to different global generations. Contexts are the basis to differentiate these generations, such as postwar, comprising the decades of the 40s and 50s, where the Baby Boomers are classified. The generation born between the 60s and 70s, the generation X, was influenced by the political transition environment. On the other hand, the Millennials (Generation Y from 1980 to 1994) fit into the context of globalization and the beginning of the internet era. Finally, generation Z represents digital natives (1995 to 2010). The different profiles related to these generations categorizations influence the adoption and acceptance of mobility models (Kojikocski, 2017; Lancaster; Stillman, 2002; Kuron, et al., 2015).
The exact division of generations implies both on academic and mediatic literature, however, peculiarities, values, and preferences are similar. In this sense, the question that guided this study is: Are there distinctions between global generations regarding preference of using ridehailing services?
Thus, this work aims at describing how preferences of ridehailing services uses are related to global generations. This can be justified by the optimization need of the ofeered service and, consequently, its quality, which affects users' perception of shared mobility.

Design
This research is characterized as quantitative, descriptive and exploratory. 258 questionnaires were applied in São Paulo - Brazil, such city was chosen given that it holds the largest number of Uber rides in the world. Age groups were categorized based on global generations: Generation Z, Millenials, Generation X and Baby Boomers. The variables are related to aspects relevant to the theme, such as: religion, football, gender, politics, social life, hobby, relationships, animals and communication.

Findings
From the collected sample - Baby Boomers (35 respondents), Generation X (76), Millennials (114) and Generation Z (33) - we were able to draw the results based on individual aspects answered by users. The generation Z is the most recent and most influenced by digital issues, therefore, it was used as a standpoint for comparative view.
Regarding ridesharing with other genders, generation Z shows greater acceptance. Similarly, Generation Z is more friendly while sharing with single users and users with controversial opinions (e.g. gender, politician and religion). Conversely, Generation Z is more closed with regard to married people, strange couples and people who are not willing to talk during the trip. Regarding hobbies generation Z behaves similarly to the Baby Boomers when they share trips with users with different hobby. On the subject 'football', all generations portrayed the same behavior. However, Millennials behave more favorable to sharing with fan from different teams. In order to consider the intention of not talking during the ride, all generations were strongly inclined to improve the model in regard to the previous announcement about their intention to behave.

Practical Implications
Global generations and their characteristics exert influence on consumption. Just as BabyBoomers and Generation X did in the past, it is time to be aware of the perceptions of Millennials and Generation Z. It is worth noting that the gap is smaller between Millenials and Generation Z over past generations. That is, comparing generations, Millenials have more significant differences in perspectives and preferences (Lyons et al., 2012).
In this sense, it is important to consider the movements initiated by the Millennials to contextualize what can be called "new business rounds" that will be defined by Generation Z (Kojikovski, 2017). Millennials have well-defined opinions about luxury products, cars and music (Sachs, 2016), choosing experiences, which meets the shared mobility proposition.
The results show that for shared mobility, specifically for ridehailing users, Generation Z preferences are different from the others. It is necessary to consider that the generations before millennials (including them), need to develop adaptations to the characteristics of the digital world. On the other hand, the Zs have already been born in an online reality, which reduces their perceptions to the digital barriers. In this way, it is important to be aware of the services' perceptions of this generation to deliver value to these users and to be ahead in what will be the future of mobility.
Thus, these perceptions reveal market implications for guiding the description of profiles established by users of different generations regarding their perceptions of shared-used mobility.