Research results that the claim that 'the number of car owners will decrease due to the penetration of vehicle dispatch services such as Uber and Lyft' is wrong



Car dispatch services such as Uber and Lyft have argued that one of the benefits they bring to society is that 'the rooting of car dispatch services in people's lives will reduce the number of car owners.' However, new research conducted by research teams such as Carnegie Mellon University suggests that the number of car owners in metropolitan areas is actually increasing with the penetration of ride-hailing services.

The impact of Uber and Lyft on vehicle ownership, fuel economy, and transit across US cities: iScience

https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042 (20) 31130-5

Uber and Lyft Say They Reduce Car Ownership, But That Might Not Be True
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7v4kd/uber-and-lyft-say-they-reduce-car-ownership-but-that-might-not-be-true

Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft have once argued that drivers can make more money from ride-hailing services and reduce congestion in urban areas. However, Uber has been accused by the Federal Trade Commission of exaggerating the driver's annual income claims, and it also knows that vehicles in the ride-hailing service contribute to traffic congestion .

In addition, based on the results of a survey of car owners, the vehicle dispatch service claims that 'the penetration of the vehicle dispatch service will help urban residents to let go of their cars and protect the environment.' According to a survey conducted by Lyft, 49% of users of the vehicle dispatch service answered that 'If Uber and Lyft are not available, it is likely to buy a car', and due to the penetration of the vehicle dispatch service, It's also true that some people are discouraged from buying.


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Tati Tata

Research teams such as Carnegie Mellon University are investigating changes in 'the number of vehicle registrations in the metropolitan areas where Uber and Lyft entered from 2010 to 2017' in order to understand the relationship between the penetration of vehicle dispatch services and the car ownership rate. As a result, the research team said that in the metropolitan areas where the ride-hailing service entered, the ownership rate of automobiles increased by 0.7% compared to before the service entered.

The research team pointed out that the introduction of the ride-hailing service may increase the number of car owners by 'buying a new car to become a driver of the ride-hailing service.' Since the usage fee differs depending on the model of Uber and Lyft, it seems that there were cases where high-ranked models were purchased in order to earn more.

The rate of increase in car owners seems to be particularly large in 'urban areas with a large dependency on automobiles' where the rate of ownership of cars per person is high, and when a vehicle dispatch service enters a metropolitan area with a small dependency on automobiles, car ownership Did not necessarily increase. In areas where population growth is slow, the number of car owners tends to exceed the number of population growth, but in areas where population growth is fast, the number of car owners tends to exceed the number of car owners. It is said that the number of vehicles owned per person tends to decrease.

Professor Jeremy Michalek, who led the survey, argued that it was noteworthy that car ownership increased across the metropolitan area where the survey was conducted. 'The results of this survey changed my view of what would happen when a ride-hailing service entered the market,' he said.



On the other hand, the results of this study are limited, and 'surveying the entire metropolitan area where Uber and Lyft usage is low causes noise in the results.' 'The survey was conducted from 2010 to 2017, when the economy grew. It is possible that the ownership rate of automobiles has increased due to the economic cycle. ' In response, Professor Michaelek states that the correction was made using a statistical method called the difference method .

In addition to the fact that the research results are prone to noise, some say that Uber and Lyft's claim to 'reduce car ownership' itself is nonsense. Even if you have a high car ownership rate, cars parked on the side of the road or in the garage do not emit harmful greenhouse gases, so they do not have a significant impact on the environment. 'If people simply replace their private car trips with someone else's car trips, car ownership doesn't solve the city's problems,' said Motherboard, a foreign media outlet.

in Ride, Posted by log1h_ik