How Uber and Lyft Can Save Lives – July 2021
The Wall Street Journal reports on Faculty Affiliate of the Energy Institute, Lucas Davis, discussing ways in which ride-share apps helped decrease driving fatalities.
“After crunching the granular data, the professors find ‘a robust negative impact of ridesharing on traffic fatalities.’ The effects are ‘larger during nights and weekends,’ which is intuitive if people are getting into Ubers instead of driving drunk. As for overall traffic deaths, the authors make two points about how ride-sharing can lower the figures. First, ‘some fatal crashes without reported alcohol involvement may nevertheless involve alcohol.’ Second, it’s possible ride-sharing drivers might be safer ‘than the drivers they replace.’ Your mileage will vary. But unlike the average guy texting on the freeway, app drivers know there’s someone in the back seat who could report them.”