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Uber, Lyft worsen city traffic, studies show: report
Despite promises of reducing traffic congestion, ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are doing the opposite as their apps pluck passengers off public transportation and put pedestrians in cars, the Associated Press reported.
According to an AP review of research, studies show the ride-hailing apps are directly competing with mass transit and the increased number of taxis and Uber and Lyft cars on the road contribute to slower traffic. A New York-based study cited "vacant vehicles occupied only by drivers waiting for their next trip request," as a contributing factor for high-volume traffic in Manhattan's central business district, the AP reported.
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Studies Show That Ride-Hailing Companies Increase Traffic Congestion
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poverty, n.:
An unfortunate state that persists as long
as anyone lacks anything he would like to have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday February 28 2018, @01:35AM (4 children)
You can also call Lyft/Uber to go get your lunch.
You wouldn't dream of going to your car and driving to the restaurant, fight for parking, and then driving back. But for a few bucks you can have some other guy driving around, getting angry enough to shoot somebody. [soylentnews.org]
B,b,b,b,babe You aint seen nothing yet. Wait till driverless cars arrive, and everybody sends them for a sixpack and a pizza, and the putz along obeying to every speed limit, turning every street into a parking lot.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Wednesday February 28 2018, @05:28AM (3 children)
Yup... Uber/Lyft does nothing to solve traffic congestion... two trips ( coming and going ) to get YOU where you want to go, but at no time was the car actually parked.
So we move the congestion from the parking lot to the street. Just like you mention.
Wait 'till the self-driving cars become accepted... I'll betcha many people will just send their car on fool's errands instead of paying parking fees. Four dollars will buy a gallon of diesel, which will take an hour or so to burn through in congested city streets - especially if you set it to drive for maximum fuel conservation. That same four dollars would buy maybe 30 minutes in the parking lot.
I will bet even more that every advertiser in town will see a golden opportunity to festoon the car up with all sorts of billboardery just for the opportunity to put themselves out in the public view, while offering jitney services to businesses as an excuse for aimlessly flitting back and forth on the roads - again with the engine controls set for maximum fuel conservation. Its actually in an advertiser's best interest to congest the traffic as much as possible to maximize your advertising exposure. When you have an ad to deliver, who gives a damm if you piss people off? If a business has enough money to do it, pissing people off hasn't stopped advertisers yet. Be as obnoxious and irritating as they can - so they will be remembered.
I already see trucks outfitted with billboards, on the road, just to be seen. Some of the townsfolk around here are already up-in-arms about the proliferation of billboards in our city, and have our city councils pen ordinances forbidding it, but we can't do much about them simply putting the billboard on a big truck and hauling it all over the city. They pay for diesel and a driver instead of paying space rent for the billboard. With new technology, they can eliminate paying a driver. The savings drop straight to the bottom line, making vehicular advertising even more cost effective for those who like the idea of forcing their corporate message onto the public. Nice big truck... slow acceleration .. use the absolute minimum amount of fuel and congest the traffic as much as as one can in order to maximize viewtime for the ad.
Every time one buys something from one of these heavily advertised companies, all they do is use that money to buy yet more advertising.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nuke on Wednesday February 28 2018, @09:53AM (1 child)
This ^^^
I don't know how anyone could ever have believed that ride-hailing companies would reduce congestion, although the companies would obviously want to spin it that way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28 2018, @09:20PM
Exactly. But they may help with the parking problem.
I had a guy tell me driverless cars would solve all these problems. Like so many cars in the lot. He didn't grasp that the driverless cars would have to park somewhere all day.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Wednesday February 28 2018, @02:11PM
sudo mod me up