Ride Sharing vs. Gridlock
When ride sharing providers broke onto the global scene a few years ago, many thought it would help ease traffic congestion. It seemed like a reasonable prediction. When you make it easier to request and share a ride, these apps can serve more people. They can (in real time) determine where demand is and more efficiently serve a city compared to local taxis. Why drive your own car, when you can request a car, only when you need it? Once your ride is finished, that car can go off and drive someone else. Oh like a Taxi? Yes, it costs less and operates at scale. Thousands of riders can request a ride from one operator, in the same city, in a second, and be served. What would happen if a taxi dispatcher received 1000 phone calls all at once from people requesting rides?
In recent years, many major cities have felt that ride sharing apps have had a negative impact on traffic congestion. Recently, traffic and transportation planning firm Fehr & Peers was commissioned by Uber and Lyft to research vehicle miles travelled (VMT) in six major cities in the United States: Boston, Chicaco, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C.
The study identified VMT in those cities and broke each city down into counties. This was done to specifically identify how the data changed within regions of a city. Some of the counties that received a focus are:
- The main city
- The densest job center
- The densest population center
If you enjoy reading this type of report, Fehr & Peers have made the full 21 page document available below.
Here are a few takeaways we find interesting.
There Are A Lot of Ride Sharing Vehicles 🚗📱
We know what you must be thinking. "I didn't need a report to tell me that!" We know, we know. Standing on the sidewalk of any of these cities and watching the cars go by, you can see dozens if not hundreds of Uber and Lyft logos in the windows of passing cars. It was always something you could feel, but now we have data to back it up. In San Francisco, 12.8% of ALL vehicle miles travelled (VMT) were from Uber or Lyft (in September 2018). Massive. If you take a look at Chicago, that number is 3.3%. Not as big as SF, but still a decent contribution to the roads.
Empty Vehicles ⛔️🚙
The study also tracks the vehicles in three states:
- P1 - a driver waiting for a ride
- P2 - a driver enroute to pickup a passenger
- P3 - passenger in the vehicle
Vehicle states in each city.
If you take a look at the following graph, ride sharing vehicles are empty more than ~40% of the time they are on the streets. That is a huge contribution to congestion. These are vehicles just driving around, waiting for a passenger. Why not sit still or park at a taxi stand? The closer you are to a potential fare, the better chance you have at getting it. It doesn't make sense to sit still in a low density area, when you could be moving to an area with Surge Pricing.
Ride Sharing is Not The Biggest Problem 🚘
Although ride sharing providers do contribute to vehicles on streets, the biggest source of traffic congestion (by far) is still personal vehicles. The numbers are staggering with approximately 70% of all trips being done in a personal vehicle. This number is above 80% in Los Angeles. Any attempt to fix traffic congestion has to start with personal vehicles. It is easy to blame the Ubers and Lyfts of the world, but if anyone is to blame, it's us. Can the ride sharing apps be better? Yes, but their single digit percentage contributions are peanuts compared to the 70%-80% figures of personal vehicles.
Estimated trip mode in the six cities from the study.
Solutions ✅🚙🚦
So how do we fix traffic congestion? This question is being asked by hundreds of cities around the world. It is easy for us to sit here and state the problem, even the sources of the problem, but we need a solution. Thankfully many smart minds are working on and implementing solutions to combat traffic congestion.
New York City - Congestion Pricing
N.Y.C. will be rolling out congestion pricing over the next two years. The proposed fees right now are $8.00 for cars and commercial vehicles and $21 for trucks. These fees would be charged to all vehicles entering the zone between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. New York City has also began charging congestion tolls on taxis and ride sharing apps operating below 96th street in Manhattan.
Multiple Cities - Transit Only Streets
Many cities are limiting certain streets or sections of streets for transit only. One of the things that wasn’t mentioned about traffic congestion in the report is how street level public transportation affects congestion. Buses, streetcars and trams need to share the streets with other vehicles and can be a big cause of congestion when they need to stop or even break down and take away entire lanes causing bottlenecks. Relegating certain lanes, streets or times of day to just public transportation vehicles improves congestion for all vehicles.
New York City - Ride Sharing Limits
N.Y.C. is also the first city to implement a limit on the number of ride sharing vehicles can operate in the city. The city assesses the congestion and can adjust the numbers if needed. Tomorrow, N.Y.C. will vote to increase the limit and also vote on a “cruising limit” which would limit the amount of time a ride sharing vehicle can drive without a fare.
Autonomous Vehicles
We’ve talked at length about self driving cars here on the Tunnel Time blog. It’s pretty clear that self driving vehicles have the potential to significantly reduce (if not completely eliminate 🤞) traffic congestion. I recommend checking out the link above to one of our previous blog posts on the subject.
