Skip to Content
Smart cities

Uber and Lyft are the biggest contributors to San Francisco’s growing traffic problem

Traffic surrounds a ride-hailing taxi picking up passengers in New York
Traffic surrounds a ride-hailing taxi picking up passengers in New YorkAssociated Press

Contrary to ride-hailing companies’ claims that they reduce congestion in cities, there’s growing evidence that they make the situation worse.  

The impact: Traffic congestion in San Francisco went up by about 60% from 2010 to 2016, and Uber and Lyft were responsible for more than half of that increase, according to a new study in Science Advances.

How they worked it out: The companies wouldn’t share data with the researchers, so they used a computer program to simulate ride requests, indicating the number of trips plus where they started and finished. To figure out the wider impact, they used a traffic simulation model incorporating factors like population growth and roadworks. They set the model to 2010, before ride-hailing services were widely used, and then compared the results for 2016.

A growing consensus: It’s increasingly well established that ride-hailing is a major contributor to city congestion (and not just in San Francisco). Rather than complementing public transport, Uber and Lyft encourage people to take trips in cars instead. The environmental impact is less well studied, but it seems likely the effect is detrimental there, too. It’s also possible that ride-sharing is increasing traffic deaths.

Sign up here to get your dose of the latest must-read news from the world of emerging tech in our daily newsletter The Download.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

DeepMind’s cofounder: Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI.

“This is a profound moment in the history of technology,” says Mustafa Suleyman.

What to know about this autumn’s covid vaccines

New variants will pose a challenge, but early signs suggest the shots will still boost antibody responses.

Human-plus-AI solutions mitigate security threats

With the right human oversight, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can help keep business and customer data secure

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

From million-dollar slide shows to Steve Jobs’s introduction of the iPhone, a bit of show business never hurt plain old business.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.