List: The Negative Effects of Ride-Hailing

Ride-hailing companies have yet to deliver on many of the transportation system improvements that they, and their supporters, have been promising. Streetsblog USA provides a scathing critique of the consequences of widespread ride-hailing.

February 6, 2019, 10am PST | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell

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Angie Schmitt follows a recent "raft" of studies finding negative effects from the widespread adoption of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft—the most recent being the news that UCLA students are hailing rides 11,000 times a week just to get around campus.

"It’s becoming more and more clear that Uber and Lyft having some pretty pernicious effects on public health and the environment, especially in some of the country’s largest cities," according to Schmitt.

To better keep track of the kinds of bad news that have been made public regarding ride-hailing companies in recent months, Schmitt offers the following list, with a lot more detail included in the source article:

They increase driving, a lot.
They are inefficient (lots of "deadheading" or driving time with no passengers).
They operate in largest numbers in transit-rich cities and neighborhoods.
They replace alternative transportation (e.g., walking, biking, transit).
They hurt transit ridership.
They reduce political support for public transit.
They increase traffic fatalities.
They hoard data.