The introduction of ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft hasn’t had any impact on the number of fatalities related to drunken driving, a newly published study finds.
Researchers at the University of Southern California and Oxford University looked at the 100 most populated metropolitan areas, analyzing data from before and after the introduction of Uber and its competitors, and found that access to ride-sharing apps had no effect on traffic fatalities related to drinking alcohol.
Uber has repeatedly pointed to drunken-driving reduction as a benefit of its service. A 2015 blog post on its website, titled “Making Our Roads Safer For Everyone,” notes a survey Uber conducted with the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving that found anecdotal evidence that people believe their friends are less likely to drive drunk since the introduction of Uber.
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In the latest study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers analyzed county-level data from 100 metropolitan areas in dozens of states and controlled for the effects of state laws that could affect drunk driving fatalities, such as bans on texting while driving, marijuana-related legislation and taxes on alcohol.
The authors also separated total alcohol-related traffic fatalities from those that occurred on weekends or holidays, and found no reduction in deaths with the introduction of Uber in either case.
So, why? The authors of the study speculated that drunk people might not want to shell out for the services.
The abstract is here; it looks like the full study is not freely available. I tend to give Uber and its ilk the benefit of the doubt here, as they do provide an option for people who may not have, or may not think they have, any alternative to driving. It may be a few years before we can feel confident in an answer to this. In the meantime, add this to the pile.
If I had to guess, Uber is simply replacing cabs for people who already took a cab when they went out drinking.
If you’re going to a bar on the other side of town it can still be prohibitively expensive, and those are the trips that would be the most likely to lead to drunk driving fatalities.