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New Research Confirms That Ride-Hailing Companies Are Causing a Ton of Traffic Congestion
A study published today in Science Advances comparing pre- and post-rideshare boom traffic in San Fransisco found that the presence of Uber, Lyft, and similar companies has been an overall detriment for people who like getting where they're going quickly.
That businesses which pay people to have their vehicles on the road would, well, increase the number of cars blocking up the transit grid might appear to be a forgone, perhaps even obvious conclusion. But the body of writings on Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) as they're sometimes called is, surprisingly, mixed. Some studies found that Ubers and Lyfts were choking the streets of New York, Boston, and Chicago; a few claimed, conversely, that rideshares were alleviating traffic. Thus the team behind today's paper—composed of two University of Kentucky staffers and members of San Francisco's County Transportation Authority—had their work cut out for them.
(Score: 1) by istartedi on Monday May 13 2019, @06:07AM (1 child)
This was just an example to show how ride-sharing would theoretically put more cars on the road. I have no idea what the average number of non-revenue miles is for an average single-passenger ride.
Also, if the extra 0.5 miles involves an intersection that's already congested it's actually more impact than a 10 mile pickup down a road that's clear. ie, it's not just the quantity of the extra driving, it's the quality.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 13 2019, @12:33PM
Sure. But my point is that we're missing a bunch of solutions to that problem that can change the dynamics without a lot of effort. Ignoring the matter of improving infrastructure (which to be honest is a thing that San Francisco routinely does and probably will continue to do), another option is to create incentives to split rides which as you note would reduce congestion. That could be done via subsidies or access to special lanes and parking. It would be rather easy for ride hailing services to incorporate such.