We did something wrong about Uber and Lyft

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Uber and some transportation experts have predicted that the app’s one-tap ride will reduce traffic and increase riders’ use of public transport.

Instead, the opposite happened.

I mentioned this in a recent newsletter. Today I want to go a little deeper into what happened to the promise of on-demand trips and what we can learn from it. How can we believe that technology will help solve big problems if Uber’s great promise does not come to fruition?

Here’s what the study is discovering: Over the past few years ride-on-demand service has been a major driver of traffic growth in U.S. cities, especially in the midlands. the heart of big cities. And most studies have shown that ride-hailing is also an important reason for the reduction in the number of people using public transport, especially buses.

Uber and Lyft have said that self-driving drivers are the largest source of traffic. That’s true, but it doesn’t explain the increase in traffic that services have added to cities.

What is up? Gregory D. Erhardt, a transportation modeling system analyst at the University of Kentucky, told me that companies and some transport professionals misjudged how to use ride services.

The theory of on-demand trips is that they should be like carpooling. When people drive to work, they’ll pick up an extra person or two on the way – and some money. But Uber and Lyft are more like a taxi.

Uber and Lyft, as they expand, focus on crowded metropolitan areas where there are plenty of potential drivers and riders. But even there, drivers still spend a large chunk of their working time traveling around without fare and clogging the streets, Dr Erhardt said. The combination of all these factors has many miles of driving in many large and medium cities. (Dr. Erhardt and his colleagues will soon publish additional research on the impact of hail ride services in approximately 250 US metropolitan areas.)

Dr. Erhardt and I talked about three lessons from this misjudgment. First, Uber and Lyft need to share their data so that cities can understand the impact of the service on the road. Second, public officials need to direct the transport policy to encourage useful behavior and limit destructive behavior. And third, the new technology needs guardrails – and maybe they need to be in place before its impact is apparent.

The first point is Uber and Lyft, which tend to keep certain information secret, such as where people travel and idle time, need to share information with cities and researchers. Dr Erhardt said: “Cities are pushing hard and there is a strong case that we can use this data for planning and research purposes.

His second point is about incentives. Some cities including New York and Chicago have added fees on Uber and Lyft trips to make it more expensive to drive around without passengers or pick up tickets in crowded urban centers. That essentially pushes passengers and companies to cut back on trips that could exacerbate congestion and pollution.

You’re probably thinking, if Uber and Lyft are convenient, why get in their way? That’s fair, but governments use taxes and subsidies to encourage people to quit smoking or buy a home. Transportation suits everyone not by itself. “The correct design of the structure is very important,” said Dr. Erhardt.

And the third point is that policymakers may have to act early to impose new regulations and requirements on new technology. They didn’t do that when Uber and Lyft partnered – because the companies were against the regulations and services became ubiquitous.

But the impact of ride-hailing services suggests that emerging vehicles, including driverless cars, may need early regulations to ensure that promises of collective benefits do not return. into an illusion.

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Tips of the week

Bring these maps with you

Planning a trip soon? (I hope so too!) Brian X. ChenThe personal technology column at The New York Times told us about the process of downloading maps on our phones during times when we might not have an Internet connection.

With spring break – and vaccines! – with us many of you may be planning road trips. Add this task to your to-do list: Download offline maps for your destination.

With offline maps, you store mapping data for the selected destination on your smartphone. If you drive to a place with poor cellular reception, your maps application will still be able to show you the way. This can be helpful if you are visiting a national park with a very ingenious reception, and need to find your hotel or the entrance to a hiking spot.

Here’s how to download maps offline with Google Maps on iPhone and Android devices:

* Open the Google Maps app. Find the place you plan to go to. I will use Yosemite National Park as an example.

* At the bottom of the screen, tap Yosemite National Park. Then click the Add button. It’s a three-dot icon in the upper right corner.

* Select the option to “Download offline maps.” Pinch your fingers together or apart to zoom in, out, and select the map area you want to save. Click Download.

Before we go …

• The meaning behind the Amazon election: Warehouse workers in Alabama are completing a vote on what could be the first Amazon union in the United States. My colleagues Karen Weise and Michael Corkery write about how vote counting works and what is threatened in the election.

• Never tweeted? Recode reports that an Amazon computer security engineer thinks company tweets fired on members of Congress are so unusual that they could be a cyber attack. Are not. Jeff Bezos wants to respond more strongly to criticism about the company.

• Repress free online news: A relatively new generation of online-focused news outlets in India has resisted the government’s campaign against dissent. My colleagues Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar say that the new rules can now restrain them.

Hold this

Payment procedures This bird strode confidently – sashaying, really. (And scroll down to see all the people who have ordered music for our bird friend, like this.) For bird behavior experts: What’s going on here?

We want to hear from you. Let us know what you think about this newsletter and what you want us to explore. You can contact us at [email protected]

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