If Your Car Is Stuck in Traffic, It’s Not Uber and Lyft’s Fault
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27017674@N06/9190674263/in/album-72157633043849416/

While many think ride-hailing is to blame for congestion in cities around the world, like Saigon, the blame rests elsewhere. Photo by Jonas Ginter/Flickr

This is an excerpt reposted courtesy of CityLab, written by WRI Board Member Robin Chase.

City streets are a scarce resource, and they can get very congested. During peak times, we want to move as many people through these corridors as efficiently as possible. On this, I think we all agree.

But some people want to lay the blame for urban traffic congestion on the growing popularity of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, and a recent report by transportation consultant Bruce Schaller gives support to this idea: Schaller’s analysis shows that, over the past six years, ride-sharing services have added 5.7 billion vehicle miles traveled and increased trips by 241 percent in nine major U.S. cities.

That sounds like a lot! But Schaller’s framing sets us up for failure. Cities have been congested and transit has been poorly used for years before these companies set up shop.

Continue reading on CityLab.

Robin Chase is co-founder of Zipcar and a WRI Board member.

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