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Studies Are Increasingly Clear: Uber, Lyft Congest Cities (apnews.com)
One promise of ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft was fewer cars clogging city streets. But studies suggest the opposite: that ride-hailing companies are pulling riders off buses, subways, bicycles and their own feet and putting them in cars instead . From a report: And in what could be a new wrinkle, a service by Uber called Express Pool now is seen as directly competing with mass transit. Uber and Lyft argue that in Boston, for instance, they complement public transit by connecting riders to hubs like Logan Airport and South Station. But they have not released their own specific data about rides, leaving studies up to outside researchers. And the impact of all those cars is becoming clear, said Christo Wilson, a professor of computer science at Boston's Northeastern University, who has looked at Uber's practice of surge pricing during heavy volume. "The emerging consensus is that ride-sharing (is) increasing congestion," Wilson said. One study included surveys of 944 ride-hailing users over four weeks in late 2017 in the Boston area. Nearly six in 10 said they would have used public transportation, walked, biked or skipped the trip if the ride-hailing apps weren't available. The report also found many riders aren't using hailed rides to connect to a subway or bus line, but instead as a separate mode of transit, said Alison Felix, one of the report's authors.
There are two kinds of congestion in cities - cars just going somewhere, and cars looking to park/parked.
Uber/Lyft reduce the second kind, which means traffic flows more smoothly even with more cars. A car just dropping people off does not impact traffic the way cars circling a block looking for parking will, and also will not fill up valuable parking spots that might have otherwise been filled.
Also congestion pricing itself naturally means there will be fewer uber/lyft drivers around at peak normal traffic times. The majority of uber/lyft drivers come out during surge pricing, which is when other forms of transport come less frequently or are not available - one person I know who commutes to downtown usually takes a bus, but if he's going in later will sometimes take an Uber if he misses the bus because it will be 30 minutes before the next one.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Mass transit is of limited use. It is a pain when you have to do a transfer or your destination is a long ways from a stop. I can easily see Uber which offers door to door service pulling people off from a mass transit system that doesn't really go where they need it to.
Boston also has a special problem of the north commuter rail system not being connected to the south one. So if you have to cross this boundary it forces a transfer onto the subway. Subway and commuter rail are separate systems and require two fares. When you add this up, an Uber Pool is definitely price competitive.
No, because this is the whole reason for regulating number of taxi medallions and fares. There are only ever the number of taxis on the road that the city wants to allow on the road, and they are priced at a point where taking a bus is a better option.
Let's also remember here that Uber rides are priced artificially low. After taxis are out of business they will move to charging rates that will make them money. It would be interesting to know what level that rate would be at today. Significantly more expensive than they are now, probably similar to a taxi.
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Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, subtracting buses and trucks hauling commercial goods, about half the cars on the street in Korea were taxis (the ones with the white dome on the roof). In order to fight traffic congestion, the government imposed like a $20,000 tax on cars. The result being that very few people owned their own car, and instead took taxis. There was practically no traffic congestion. If you needed to go anywhere, you could wait for a bus, or hail a taxi (usually got one within 15 seconds, almost always less than a minute). A quick ride, pay your fare, and you were done.
Then a certain U.S. Presidential candidate ruined it. He ran an ad criticizing Korea for having unfair trade barriers. You could buy a Hyundai in the U.S. for $10k, but a Ford Escort in Korea was taxed to cost $30k. He conveniently left out that that the Hyundai also cost $30k in Korea. His deception worked (though his presidential campaign did not), and Americans were outraged and demanded that Korea rescind this "unfair" tax. Korea did so, and suddenly the masses in Korea were able to afford their own car. And the streets immediately became gridlocked. What used to be a 5-6 hour bus ride from one end of the country to the other (250 miles / 400 km) during the Lunar New Year now regularly takes 24 hours because of all the cars.
In that respect, I think these studies are missing a crucial stat - how many people take Uber/Lyft instead of driving their own car or even owning a car?
How about more cars = more pollution? I am by no means a tree hugger but having a second taxi fleet that is also pulling people off public transit just seems wasteful towards the environment.