Uber and Lyft are clogging big city streets a little more than they thought

Ride share giants Uber and Lyft are responsible for more traffic congestion than they originally thought — but they’re still well outpaced by private cars, according to a study that the two companies themselves commissioned. 

The study, which you can read in full here, was conducted by firm Fehr & Peers at the request of the two leading ride-share companies. It focused on the combined “Vehicle Miles Traveled” in September 2018 in six major U.S. cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. 

The contribution from these companies’ cars to overall congestion in larger metropolitan areas is relatively small, accounting for between 1.5 and 3 percent of those total vehicle miles.

• Boston: 1.9 percent

• Chicago: 2.1 percent

• Los Angeles: 1.5 percent

• San Francisco: 2.7 percent

• Seattle: 1.1 percent

• Washington, D.C.: 1.9 percent

But that average percentage goes up a when you focus on the core counties of each metro area, particularly for Boston (Suffolk Co.) at 7.7 percent, and San Francisco (San Francisco Co.) at a whopping 12.8 percent. 

It’s worth noting that the bump in San Francisco still seems relatively low when compared with another recent study, which showed that congestion increased in the city by 60 percent between 2010 and 2016, with more than half of that caused by Uber and Lyft cars.

Even more telling, as CityLab notes, is how much of the time these ride-share cars are on the road without passengers. In four of the six metro areas studied, roughly 45 percent of miles on the road for ride-share vehicles are spent either waiting to be hailed (P1) or driving to pick up a passenger (P2). The exceptions are Seattle, where riderless miles account for around 70 percent, and Los Angeles, where more than 75 percent of miles are spent with passengers in the car.

Chris Pangilinan, Uber’s Head of Global Policy for Public Transportation, addressed the study in a blog post, conceding that “TNCs are likely contributing to an increase in congestion” but taking care to point out that “its scale is dwarfed by that of private cars and commercial traffic.” (Mashable reached out to Lyft for comment on the study.)

That Pangilinan drills home the point that ride-share traffic from Uber and Lyft accounts for such a small share of miles on these cities’ streets makes sense: congestion from their cars has led to a cap on the number of ride-share cars allowed on roads in New York City as well as new rules regarding congestion charges in London.  

Still, despite calls for ride-share caps or new congestion fees in some of the above cities, there’s no indication that any of them will follow New York City’s lead in the near future. So prepare to see more and more ride-share cars on those city streets.