Uber and Lyft increased traffic delays in San Francisco by 40 percent

No surprise to me. I was planning on opining on this when I had time. Uber and Lyft vehicles are going to spend some of their time on the road driving between clients, which would add to the total amount of driving time on the roads. I don't understand how anybody could think they would reduce congestion unless they were able to do enough multi-passenger trips of people who would otherwise take separate trips.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2202011-uber-and-lyft-increased-traffic-delays-in-san-francisco-by-40-percent/

By Chelsea Whyte
May 8, 2019

Uber and Lyft drivers are on strike to demand regulated fares and livable wages, in the lead-up to Uber’s initial public offering on the stock exchange on 10 May. Now there is some more bad news for these services: they haven’t lived up to claims of reducing traffic congestion.

In San Francisco, rides through these two services increased traffic delays by 40 per cent over a six-year period, according to a new study.

“We collected information on where and when exactly these trips occur and found they are at the most congested parts of the city and the most congested times of day,” says Greg Erhardt at the University of Kentucky.

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“The authors did not take into account the vehicle occupancy,” he says, adding that his own work found that the number of people per car increases on the weekends and in the evenings. But he says that we need more research to understand if those trips are replacing rides on mass transit or people driving their own cars.

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A spokesperson for Uber says, “While studies disagree on causes for congestion, almost everyone agrees on the solution. We need tools that help ensure sustainable travel modes like public transportation are prioritized over single occupant vehicles.”