tandempower

This article explains that ride-sharing increases traffic congestion instead of decreasing it, as forecasted.

I think the reason for this is only partly because some people prefer a private ride over other modes. I think the bigger reason is that people like not having to worry about parking and other responsibilities that come with driving your own car, but they still aren't satisfied with transit and biking because of various reasons, including infrastructure and cultural norms/aesthetics. In fact, in another thread I posted an article claiming that Uber sees its bike-shares being preferred over its ride-sharing where the bikes are available.


I think the overall problem with congestion is that no matter what options people have for transportation, there will be other people who flood the roads to take up whatever slack is left by those of us using alternative transportation. Ultimately that means as many motor-vehicles on the roads as can fit before congestion deters people from using them. The ride-sharing still reduces the need for parking spots, but it doesn't reduce congestion. Hopefully the dockless bike/scooter sharing will solve the last mile problem and give people an option to bypass the congestion altogether.


What is your opinion? Is there any solution to congestion? Will ride-sharing, autonomous and otherwise, continue to grow the total amount of traffic on the roads? If ride-sharing could somehow be cut back to the levels it was at before the advent of ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, would that reduce congestion or would people just drive and/or take traditional taxis? Do you think congestion will always be an impetus for LCF, rather than LCF being a way to relieve and prevent congestion?

TheLibrarian

I think the only people using uber instead of their own car is if they plan on getting sloppy drunk or where parking is more expensive than a ride like at an airport.

indyfabz

Nope. These services have lured people into car trips they would not have otherwise taken. Living here in the big city I know several people who now Uber it when they used to walk or take public transit. Another side effect is that Uber, etc., drivers are far less courteous than cabs when it comes to picking up and dropping off people. Many of them just stop wherever its convenient without even attempting to pull over. One Lyft driver this morning stopped diagonally at a corner and was basically obstructing both crosswalks. Also, the much more common way to get a cab is to hail one. The cab stops, the passenger gets in and the cab pulls away. In downtown Philly, people order rides while still in their offices. The car shows up before they do and just sits there, often blocking a travel lane and/or crosswalk, until the passenger arrives. That can be minutes. See it all the time while unlocking my bike and preparing leave after work. That sort of thing happens even in my residential neighborhood with its relatively narrow, one-lane streets. Finally, since many drivers come from out of town they don't know how to get around. My neighborhood consists of nearly all one-way streets. A few doors down from my house there is a small street. It's one way south until you get to my block then it turns one way north, which means if you are going south you have to make a right onto my street. Lost count of the number of Uber and Lyft, drivers I have seen blatantly ignore the two large "Do Not Enter" signs and continue north.

tandempower

In many cases, the Uber driver is probably someone who would like to drive a taxi but can't because high prices keep demand down, and thus there aren't that many taxi driving jobs.

wphamilton

So the reasoning here is ... out of the 0.1 % of the trips people take by bicycle, some small fraction of that tiny percentage takes an Uber instead and that causes traffic congestion?

tandempower

What you're saying is focused on the reality of the situation. Their focus in on making a rhetorical argument that attacks ride-sharing as a threat to transportation biking. It's just supposed to turn you against ride-sharing as a cyclist, not to actually explain traffic congestion. Doing that would involve blaming the vast numbers of individual car owner-operators, who fund the auto industry out of pocket, so blaming them is biting the hand that feeds you.