Cautionary tale from 9 U.S. cities: Ride-hailing services lead to more congestion, research shows

Calls are growing for the B.C. government to ease the way for ride-hailing sooner, but one U.S. study provides a cautionary tale about the impact services like Lyft and Uber can have on traffic congestion.

Bruce Schaller, a transportation consultant based in New York City, looked at ride-hailing services in nine major cities across the U.S.

"They are a tremendously valuable addition to the transportation systems in these cities, particularly in outlying neighbourhoods," he told Stephen Quinn, the host of CBC's The Early Edition.

"But they definitely have really added to congestion in downtown New York and San Francisco and these other cities."

Measuring congestion

Schaller studied congestion both in terms of number of trips and distance driven.

Just across the border in Seattle, he says, since their arrival, Uber and Lyft have accounted for more than 151,000 extra kilometres of vehicle travel.

This year, that growth has been at about 35 per cent, he said.  

"So far in Seattle, [ride-hailing services] have been mainly just a plus which is what we've seen in other major cities in the early days too," Schaller said.

"But over time, as they get bigger and bigger, your really start to have these congestion concerns."

That's partly because of an increase in trips as people switch from public transportation, walking or biking to ride-sharing.

It's also partially due to the time the vehicles are driven around waiting for the next passengers.

Schaller's research showed that the vehicles are driving around without a passenger about 40 per cent of the time.

To regulate or not

In B.C., the government is looking to give the Passenger Transportation Board the authority to cap the number of ride-hailing vehicles.

However, not everyone supports the idea.

"The Transportation Board is going to control consumer demand," said Ian Tostenson, a spokesperson for the group called Rideshare Now for B.C.

"I think it should be the other way around —  I think the consumers should demand what the services are and a board should manage that."

According to Schaller though, some regulation is needed to avoid future problems.

"The regulatory task is to balance what is good for the individual user — who has been flocking to these services in these cities — [because,] at the same time, you don't want the proliferation in downtown neighbourhoods to clog up traffic,"  Schaller said.

He recommends limiting the supply of ride-hailing services in downtown and congested areas of cities.

"That's where you need to control the growth, and, particularly, you want to make sure that those vehicles are heavily utilized," he said.

With files from The Early Edition.