Do transportation network companies decrease or increase congestion?

I remember when Uber was “supposed” to be a ride sharing service where you could make extra money along your intended destination. It wasn’t touted as a taxi service.

Link to the study exactly. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/5/eaau2670 Having just read the study the results make sense. The authors look at car ownership reduction. They find that Uber and Lyft are not actually helping with that. We do not observe a meaningful change in car ownership, with an average of 1.08 cars per household in 2010 and 1.10 cars per household in 2016 (36).

This is because as people move towards dense urban centers they are now sometimes electing to use Uber and Lyft instead of transit. The thing is because parking and driving is so expensive as is living in a dense prolific city, you probably wouldn't have wanted a car anyway.

The findings clearly show Uber and Lyft create traffic. The speed data used in this study confirm this trend, showing that the average speed decreases from 25.6 miles per hour (mph) in 2010 to 22.2 mph in 2016 and that the vehicle hours of delay (VHD) increase by 63% over the same period.

In addition to the 20% of TNC VMT that is out-of-service, 70% of San Francisco TNC drivers live outside the city

It makes sense that Uber and Lyft actually worsen traffic. They bring cars and congestion into the city and create public transit competitors.

I have the one for NYC here also http://www.schallerconsult.com/rideservices/unsustainable.pd...

The question is what is the best response to help the environment? It seems that supporting Uber and Lyft is contrary to sustainable objectives. Is that partially why many cities and countries do not want them to operate in their jurisdiction?

I found it ironic that Lyft/Uber has been a godsend to the Phoenix area. Cabs were always horrible / impractical here.

When I'm in SF and other major cities, I tend to lean towards cabs more.

Also every driver I meet in SF has driven from somewhere else to "work" in the city.

>The question is what is the best response to help the environment?

invest in public transit that can transport people in a denser fashion instead of relying on cars. The fundamental limitation of the car is the low amount of passengers / area it can transport.

http://i.imgur.com/G7cAK4Y.gif

>Is that partially why many cities and countries do not want them to operate in their jurisdiction?

Among other things, yes. But arguably the bigger issue is their inability to comply with regulations, in particular their skewed relationship to nominally indepdenent drivers gives them an advantage over companies who have more obligations towards both customers and workers. This isn't unique to Uber but applies to other "sharing economy" companies like Airbnb