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Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

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Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#31

Post by techsupporter »

product50 wrote: post #26
p4wnc6 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except they really don't and are a great service in tons of places.

Have you ever been in a taxi in US or India or Australia or even Canada? The entire experience sucks - from finding them, to convincing them to take you to your destination, to them rudely talking to you when you are explaining them your destination cross streets, to have them talking on the phone while driving, to have their taxi filthy dirty, to have them take you around to your destination in a non optimal way, to…

> You know nothing and I can prove that with experience and facts. It is so infuriating when fools like you come in and make a statement which has no firm basis and sense of truth.

Welcome to being a vocal user of mass transit, like I am. I have no vehicle and daily use bus-based public transit and have done so in multiple countries on this planet. With a handful of exceptions, riding the bus (or rail, if available) has been clean, on time, safe, and enjoyable. Yet every time I relate any story I have from mass transit, I am told that I must be wrong or deluded because the recipient of my story rode transit and had a bad experience. Therefore, my using public transit means that I will, inevitably, be shot, mugged, harassed, delayed, or otherwise inconvenienced or irritated.

I think that both you and the person to whom you are replying simply have different life experiences. I've taken taxis--normal taxis, not "Uber-as-a-taxi"--in those same countries and they have been clean and safe, though I do not take them hardly at all.

Anecdotes are a bad thing to get riled up over. Your experience differs. You do not need to call someone a fool or belittle what he or she has experienced simply because yours differs.

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#32

Post by [deleted] »

mc32 wrote: post #19
officemonkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or perhaps, drunk driving happens in areas where Taxis, Mass Transit, and Uber are not available or economical.

"Researchers... looked at the 100 most populated metropolitan areas, analyzing data from before and after the introduction of Uber and its competitors" Fair inquiry, but no. They studied the top 100 metro areas, not the Podunks. Now, it does not say whether the rate has remained steady despite, perhaps, an increase in people who now feel comfortable getting drunk cuz they can get a cab fairly easily with the intro of…

[deleted]

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#33

Post by austinl »

It's worth reading the other report [1] the article cites — it's a lot more comprehensive than the author makes it out to be. The study didn't find a relationship between Uber and alcohol-involved accidents/fatalities (which the NPR article is about), but did find a statistically significant relationship between Uber, traffic fatalities, and DUIs. They also found that introducing Uber increases auto-theft.

Using a differences-in-differences specification, we find that fatal accident rates generally decline after the introduction of Uber. Specifically, in the unweighted regressions, we find that entry is associated with a 6 percent decline in the fatal accident rate. Fatal night-time crashes experience a slightly larger decline of 18 percent. In both the weighted and unweighted estimations, we also discover a continued decline in the overall fatal crash rate and the rate of vehicular fatalities for the months following the introduction of Uber. For each additional year of operation, Uber’s continued presence is associated with a 16.6 percent decline in vehicular fatalities.

...

Again employing a differences-in-differences specification, typically with county specific trends, we find a large and robust decline in the arrest rate for DUIs. Depending upon specification, DUIs are 15 to 62 percent lower after the entry of Uber. The average annual rate of decline after the introduction of Uber is 51.3 percent per year for DUIs.

[1] http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2783797

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#34

Post by p4wnc6 »

kaishiro wrote: post #28
p4wnc6 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Cambridge for eight years (moved last summer) and never experienced anything remotely like this. I lived on Prospect Street right near Central Sq, and frequently took taxis around the area. I called ahead to have taxis pick me up for early morning rides to the airport, and they were always early and helped me with my bags. I took taxis over to the Boston College area when I was taking music lessons at a st…

Well, this is why we have anecdotes I suppose. I lived in Boston and Brookline for twelve years as well and find your claims equally laughable. We quite frequently found ourselves in cabs with credit card readers, only to be told they didn't work when it came time to pay. I also simply gave up using cabs trying to get to Logan because while they would usually be on time, there were others when they simply wouldn't sh…

Given that I easily rode in a hundred taxis all over Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, and Chestnut Hill, it would be extremely statistically unlikely that I just happened to get only the far above average good experiences each time.

The anecdote I described also matches the general experiences of all my friends and family as well, with occasional outliers (both good and bad), so I feel very confident in saying that an average case taxi ride anywhere in the Boston area involves a clean, modern taxi, polite driver, properly functioning credit card machine, a short wait (and no wait at all if you call the dispatcher ahead).

Yes, of course there is variance and sometimes people will have a worse experience. Those worse experiences are very rare, and the taxi services overall are very good the vast majority of the time.

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#35

Post by DanBC »

smt88 wrote: post #22
laurencerowe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drinking is definitely more socially acceptable in Britain than the US, but that has more to do with differing history (no prohibition) than options for getting home. Drink driving became socially unacceptable in Britain only in the last 20-30 years but alcohol consumption hasn't really changed. The anti drink driving ads on TV every Christmas were really quite hard hitting. I've seen nothing similar in the US.

The US has extensive ads fighting drinking and driving. I imagine there isn't much difference there.

The UK has had drink driving ads on mainstream TV for 50 years, since 1964.

This BBC page shows some of the ads, and discusses others. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29894885

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#36

Post by p4wnc6 »

eropple wrote: post #27
p4wnc6 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Cambridge for eight years (moved last summer) and never experienced anything remotely like this. I lived on Prospect Street right near Central Sq, and frequently took taxis around the area. I called ahead to have taxis pick me up for early morning rides to the airport, and they were always early and helped me with my bags. I took taxis over to the Boston College area when I was taking music lessons at a st…

> But some things you absolutely cannot say, at least about taxis in the Boston area, are that they are anything but clean, safe, reliable, punctual, and able to take your credit card. Safe, sure, to the best of my knowledge. Clean? Nuh-uh. Punctual? Nuh-uh. Able to take my credit card? Maybe 50% of the time. "It's broken," and suddenly it's not broken when I shrug and get out of the car. And with one exception (a de…

If these are your experiences, then your experiences seem to be very different than the average case, especially the 50% non-functioning card reader experience.

While I'm sorry that you have had such bad experiences, since your experiences differ so much from what is common, I don't feel people should base their expectations on what you say.

Instead, you can be nearly certain that it will be a clean, modern taxi, with a functioning card reader, that arrives on time and doesn't require a long wait.

To be fair to Uber, you still can expect taxis to cost more and you still have to watch out for drivers who spot a sucker and take you the long way for a larger fare.

Taxis aren't perfect. But taxis also are not rusted out death traps of lateness with serial killers for drivers and credit card readers that make you sexually barren, as apparently the army of Uber social engineering commenters wants us to believe.

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#37

Post by abritinthebay »

p4wnc6 wrote: post #36
eropple wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But some things you absolutely cannot say, at least about taxis in the Boston area, are that they are anything but clean, safe, reliable, punctual, and able to take your credit card. Safe, sure, to the best of my knowledge. Clean? Nuh-uh. Punctual? Nuh-uh. Able to take my credit card? Maybe 50% of the time. "It's broken," and suddenly it's not broken when I shrug and get out of the car. And with one exception (a de…

If these are your experiences, then your experiences seem to be very different than the average case, especially the 50% non-functioning card reader experience. While I'm sorry that you have had such bad experiences, since your experiences differ so much from what is common, I don't feel people should base their expectations on what you say. Instead, you can be nearly certain that it will be a clean, modern taxi, wit…

What everyone is telling you is that your experience is not the "average case"...

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#38

Post by scythe »

austinl wrote: post #33

It's worth reading the other report [1] the article cites — it's a lot more comprehensive than the author makes it out to be. The study didn't find a relationship between Uber and alcohol-involved accidents/fatalities (which the NPR article is about), but did find a statistically significant relationship between Uber, traffic fatalities, and DUIs. They also found that introducing Uber increases auto-theft. Using a di…

Classic case of proving the null hypothesis. The p-value hit the threshold for DUIs and deaths, but not for alcohol-involved accidents. If you're wondering why, here's a hint: the mean rate for alcohol-involved accidents was less than 1 in 100,000.

The headline, then: "Uber hasn't had an effect".

Re: Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds

#40

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

bumblebeard wrote: post #20
xupybd wrote: post #15

Totally off topic, but totally bugging me. Why is it (in this case) Effect not affect?

Effect is usually a noun and affect is usually a verb.

That's not an explanation. Effect and affect are just different things with different meanings both as nouns and verbs.
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