SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow7671
Uber and Lyft admit they're making city traffic worse
Uber and Lyft may be competitors but as the two major ridesharing companies, they also have a lot in common -- including the challenges they face. To better understand their role in city traffic patterns, the companies jointly sponsored a study to determine their combined vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in six key cities. In a surprising twist, the results got Uber to admit that ridesharing companies, or transportation network companies (TNCs), do in fact contribute to congestion.
"The research shows that despite tremendous growth over the past decade, TNC use still pales in comparison to all other traffic, and although TNCs are likely contributing to an increase in congestion, its scale is dwarfed by that of private cars and commercial traffic," Chris Pangilinan, Uber's Head of Global Policy for Public Transportation, wrote in a blog post.
The study, conducted by Fehr & Peers, looked at Uber and Lyft trips in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC. In San Francisco County, Uber and Lyft were responsible for 13.4 percent of all VMT. In Boston, they accounted for eight percent, and in Washington, DC they represent 7.2 percent of vehicle-miles. Just over half of those miles (54 to 62 percent) were spent actually driving a passenger.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 09 2019, @12:26PM
1/12th of a life driving?
If you ignore pre-work and post-retirement years...
~240 working days per year, ~90 minutes per day driving to/from/for work = ~360 hours per year.
That's only ~1/16th of your waking hours - such a bargain! (If you can afford to live within 45 minutes commute time of the office...)
I prefer to put it to my employer this way: I can be online and "productive" from 8:30 to 5:30 - 9 hours, with the usual bio-breaks which also happen at work. Or, I can start getting dressed in the dry-cleaned clothes at 8am, be in the car by 8:15, on the road until 9, walking in from the parking lot to my desk until 9:15, coordinating with fellow office workers about where to go to lunch starting at 11:45, back in the parking lot from lunch by 1 but not really back to the desk until 1:15, then wrapping things up by 4:45 in preparation for the drive at 5 which gets me home by 5:45, except on days when I have to deal with the drycleaner, or car maintenance, etc. so let's really call that 6.
Option A is 9 hours out of my life for ~8 productive hours. Option B is 10 hours out of my life for ~6 productive hours. Which do we prefer?
🌻🌻 [google.com]