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Uber and Lyft have long promised that their services would “free” people from private car ownership — but data show the opposite is happening.
Census statistics show that in the eight major cities where Uber and Lyft are most concentrated, total car ownership has risen in the last five years — a worrisome reversal of earlier trends, transportation consultant Bruce Schaller wrote this week in CityLab.
In many cities, there was an increase in car-free households and car-light households — households with fewer cars than workers — between 2012 and 2017. But those reductions were eclipsed by growth in “car-rich” households, as Schaller calls homes with more two or more vehicles.