UBER, LYFT | Adding to Congestion (Update Nov. 2, 2018)

In 2015 and 2017, I posted on the fact that traffic congestion on New York City streets seemed to me to be rising pari passu with  the growth of the online ride-hail services like Uber and Lyft.

A new report confirms this hunch:

• About 60 percent of ride-hail company users “in large, dense cities would have taken public transportation, walked, biked or not made the trip” if those services had not been available.
• The other 40 percent of users would have taken their own car or a taxi.
• As a result of rides replacing mass-transit trips, the ride-hall services put 2.8 new vehicle-miles on the road for each mile of personal driving they take away. 
• It amounts to a 180 percent increase in driving on city streets.

The report was prepared by transportation consultant Bruce Schaller. Read more in The New Automobility: Lyft, Uber and the Future of American Cities.

My point was not that the ride-hail services should necessarily be restricted, but that we can expect more congestion as they grow and we need to prepare.

We need a decongestant stronger than Vicks.

UPDATE, November 2, 2018
Uber and Lyft present themselves as replacing private cars. But in fact accumulating evidence suggests that they are positioning themselves as an alternative to public transit and are making congestion worse. Read this:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/uber-and-lyft-say-theyre-solving-traffic-while-making-it-worse_us_5bdb3662e4b0da7bfc181c32