Document is current

Article History

Received: 20 October 2024

Accepted: 2 September 2025

First Online: 6 October 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval for this study was granted by the ethics review panel convened by the Academic Committee at Suzhou City University on October 13, 2022. The approval scope explicitly covers all methodology involving human participants detailed in the research protocol, including: (1) audio-recorded focus group discussions with Suzhou ride-hailing users to capture their service experiences and perceptions, and (2) anonymous questionnaire surveys collecting sociodemographic characteristics, travel characteristics, and service perception ratings. All procedures complied with institutional and national ethical standards, the Declaration of Helsinki (1964), and its subsequent amendments.

: Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to involvement. For focus group discussions, written informed consent was secured on December 10, 2022, using Chinese-language forms detailing: research objectives (audio-recording their discussions on ride-hailing experiences/perceptions), privacy safeguards (anonymization and post-transcription audio destruction), voluntary participation rights, and data usage (academic purposes). For the questionnaire survey, digital informed consent was obtained via a mandatory agreement embedded at the beginning of questionnaires, requiring participants to check “I understand and voluntarily participate” before answering questions (Date: from January 2, 2023, to February 3, 2023). The survey maintained strict anonymity (no collection of names, IDs, or identifiers), with all data confidentially maintained for academic purposes.