Fact check/Do ridesharing services reduce drunk driving and related fatalities?
Fact check: Do ridesharing services reduce drunk driving and related fatalities?

A California car displaying the symbols for Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. (via Wikimedia Commons)
February 15, 2017
By Amée LaTour
A bill to legalize ridesharing services such as Uber in upstate New York failed last year in the legislature, and another has been introduced in 2017.[1][2] Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick recently commented to Syracuse Post-Standard that legalizing the services and making them more affordable "could have a dramatic impact on reducing drunk driving and the fatalities attendant to the problem."[3]
Do ridesharing services reduce incidents of drunk driving and related fatalities?
The potential impacts of legalizing ridesharing services in upstate New York is a matter of speculation. Research on ridesharing services and drunk driving has yielded mixed results, with some studies showing a reduction in DUIs and traffic fatalities and others finding no correlation.[4][5][6]
Background
Ridesharing services are available in New York City but not elsewhere in New York state at present.[7] On February 6, the state Senate passed a bill to make services such as Uber and Lyft available in upstate New York; the bill has gone to the state Assembly.[8] It includes standards for driver background checks, the prohibition of hiring drivers convicted of certain crimes, and standards for insurance coverage.[2] The senate last year passed a similar bill, but the assembly did not vote on the measure by the end of the session.[9][10]
Fitzpatrick has proposed subsidies to lower rideshare fares, thereby making the service more affordable for inebriated customers. He has also suggested taxing businesses that serve alcohol to subsidize ridesharing and providing tax breaks for ridesharing companies.[3]
Ridesharing is a relatively new phenomenon in much of the country, and research on its impacts is limited.[11] We summarize the results of three studies below.
National study
Researchers with Western Carolina University, in a study titled “Ride-Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime,” analyzed data from 2007 to 2014 to study whether Uber’s entry is associated with arrest rates for DUIs and the number of fatal crashes. They analyzed rates between counties with and without Uber, and within counties before and after Uber entry.[4]
The researchers report “a large and robust decline” in the DUI arrest rates of six to 27 percent associated with the entry of Uber. In addition, they note, “Recognizing that it takes time for potential users to become aware of the service and for current users to become more familiar with the process, we separately estimate a 2.8 to 3.4 percent decline in DUIs for each additional month Uber is available.”[4]
The researchers did not observe a statistically significant association between Uber availability and alcohol-related vehicle crashes.[4]
Metropolitan area study
Researchers with Oxford University and the University of Southern California, in a study titled “Uber and Metropolitan Traffic Fatalities in the United States,” compared driving-related fatality rates from 2005 to 2014 in highly populated counties before and after Uber was introduced, and between counties with and without the service.[5]
The researchers concluded that “deployment of Uber services in a given metropolitan county had no association with the number of subsequent traffic fatalities, whether measured in aggregate or specific to drunk-driving fatalities or fatalities during weekends and holidays.”[5]
The researchers noted that the results could also be attributed to other factors, including:
- Uber represents a relatively small share of transportation usage in the United States;
- Uber passengers may have formerly been taxi and public transit users, and thus the number of at-risk drivers on the road would not substantially change;
- The average inebriated individual contemplating drunk driving may not be sufficiently rational to substitute drinking and driving for a presumably safer Uber ride.[5]
California study
Temple University researchers, in a study titled “Show Me The Way To Go Home: An Empirical Investigation of Ride Sharing and Alcohol Related Motor Vehicle Homicide,” investigated how the entry of Uber influences the rate of alcohol-related motor vehicle homicides.[6]
The researchers assessed for impacts of both Uber Black, a luxury service, and Uber X, the standard, less expensive service, to determine whether the cost of the service factored into its impact on drunk driving-related deaths. They concluded that use of the standard Uber X service resulted in a 3.6 percent reduction in drunk driving-related deaths per quarter, whereas no significant effect was found for use of the luxury service Uber Black.[6]
When townships with Uber X were compared with a control group with similar population, per capita income, and other factors, the availability of Uber resulted in a decline in drunk-driving related fatalities of 5.6 percent. Results were most significant for larger cities (with populations greater than 250,000).[6]
The researchers noted three primary limitations to their study:
- It only accounted for locations in California;
- It did not consider other factors that may have influenced drunk driving fatality rates;
- It lacked demographic information on drivers involved in fatal crashes, thereby inhibiting the ability to determine if certain sub-populations are disproportionately impacted.[6]
Conclusion
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has claimed that the introduction of ridesharing services in upstate New York “could have a dramatic impact on reducing drunk driving and the fatalities attendant to the problem.”
The potential impacts of legalizing ridesharing services in upstate New York is a matter of speculation. Research on the impacts of ridesharing is limited, and results are mixed.
See also
- Fact check/Do California lawmakers always support Uber and Lyft?
- Drunk driving case reaches Massachusetts Supreme Court
- New York State Legislature
Sources and Notes
- ↑ The Buffalo News, “Kennedy invites NYC lawmakers upstate to hear about ride-hailing desires,” January 27, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The New York State Senate, “4159, 2017-2018 Regular Sessions, In Senate,” February 3, 2017
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Syracuse Post-Standard, “DA Fitzpatrick: Uber in Upstate could curb drunk driving,” January 3, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Social Science Research Network, “Ride-Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime,” February 13, 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Brazil, Noli, and David S. Kirk. “Uber and Metropolitan Traffic Fatalities in the United States.” American Journal of Epidemiology 184, 3. (2016): 192-198.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Social Science Research Network, “Show Me The Way To Go Home: An Empirical Investigation of Ride Sharing and Alcohol Related Motor Vehicle Homicide,” January 29, 2015
- ↑ Advance Media New York, “Cuomo puts Uber in Upstate on Albany special session wish list,” December 10, 2016
- ↑ The New York State Senate, “Senate Bill S4159,” accessed February 11, 2017
- ↑ The New York State Senate, “Senate Bill S4108D,” accessed January 27, 2016
- ↑ Times Herald-Record, “Albany may soon approve Uber upstate,” December 19, 2016
- ↑ One study combining Uber data with survey results found that, in December 2014, Uber had around 160,000 active drivers; the Policy and Governmental Affairs Office of Highway Policy Information reported 214 million licensed drivers in the United States in 2014. Princeton University, “An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber’s Driver-Partners in the United States,” January 22, 2015; U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, “Highway Statistics Series, Highway Statistics 2014,” updated January 4, 2016

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