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Alcohol-Related Car Accidents Declined In New York After Introduction of Uber, Analysis Finds (economist.com)
According to a new paper from Jessica Lynn Peck of the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, ride-hailing services may have helped reduce alcohol-related traffic accidents by 25-30% in New York City. The report specifically focuses on Uber, which was first introduced in the city in May 2011, and looks at how the ride-hailing service has impacted New York City. The Economist notes in its report that Uber is "largely banned outside of New York City." From the report: To control for factors unrelated to Uber's launch such as adverse weather conditions, Ms Peck compares accident rates in each of New York's five boroughs to those in the counties where Uber was not present, picking those that had the most similar population density and pre-2011 drunk-driving rate. The four boroughs which were quick to adopt Uber -- Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx--
all saw decreases in alcohol-related car crashes relative to their controls. By contrast, Staten Island, where Uber caught on more slowly, saw no such decrease.
Look, half the reason people come to NYC is the fact that you don't drive - you take cabs or the subways. I know drunkards that moved here JUST for the ability to get drunk at any time of day or night and get home without driving.
I could see Uber cutting down alcohol related driving accidents in any other part of the world - even in Queens or Brooklyn (as there are places far from subways that cabs don't visit).
But if you are drunk and driving in MANHATTAN, you should be put in prison for being stupid, rather than for DWI.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Then all those cars on the roads are from where exactly?
That aside, give people an even easier way not to drive, especially when drunk, and surprise, drunk driving goes down.
Whodathunkit?
Either that or Uber just happened to coincide with a general switch from alchohol as the intoxicant of choice to marijuana. So it switch from drivers driving to fast, to drivers driving to slow (those slow drivers not being in accidents so much as triggering them, when they set off a alchohol fuelled driver). It would be interesting to see how stoned drivers perform on a racetrack with very safe vehicles of course, how fast could they actually go before panicking and giving up.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
It's possible the app itself makes it easier to hail a cab instead. Instead of calling, they just use an app and they don't need to use cash.
Pairing the app with taxis could have the same result.
... how did taxi companies drop the ball on this one?
they are not subsidized by private investors willing to sink billions in creating a customer base in the hope that one day with autonomous cars the company will make money.
lucm, indeed.
Here in Texas, we make up for all those coastal elite snowflakes who think there's something wrong with drinking and driving.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The title is self-contradictory. When a crash is alcohol-related, it isn't accidental, it's criminally negligent.
Even the NYPD agrees that "accident" means "there's no criminality...that's why they call it an accident." But when alcohol is involved, there's criminality and therefore cannot logically be a true accident.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
>There's not been any shortage of cabs in NYC
That depends heavily on the time of day and where in NYC you happen to be.
I tried their "mytaxi" app and it is shite beyond belief. I couldn't even pay with it. It couldn't connect.
The Lyft/Uber experience is so much better.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
It would be interesting to see how stoned drivers perform on a racetrack with very safe vehicles of course...
As interesting as this is.
I think your initial premise is wrong. People switching from alcohol to marijuana is not the cause of this slowdown in drunk driving.
In my area for instance, which is a suburb outside of San Francisco, a bartender told me that taxis were too difficult to get ten years ago, that's why many of his customers didn't use them. He'd call one for a patron, and it wouldn't even show up. And when he'd get off work, he'd call a taxi for himself and the operator would tell him that it was going to take 45 minutes to get there to pick him up.
Now it just takes 2 to 10 minutes to get an Uber/Lyft. That's the crucial difference because the number of people leaving his establishment drunk hasn't really changed in the past ten years.
And no, you don't have to believe me, I am an Uber driver so I could be very biased. And if you live an Uber/Lyft rich area, I only ask that you ask longtime bartenders to see what they can tell you about this question. I suspect that they'll tell you the same thing that the bartender I met said.