Uber thinks it’s a ‘good thing’ for cities, but cities are having second thoughts

[nephersir7]

[...] For years, Uber and Lyft have talked a big game about ending personal car ownership. “People will not own cars,” Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick said in 2016. “They’ll have a service that takes them where they want to go.” Lyft president John Zimmer predicted personal car ownership in major cities will be extinct by 2025.

But on their way to ending car ownership, Uber and Lyft got sidetracked and ended up clogging cities with more traffic. Between 2010 and 2016, traffic congestion in San Francisco increased by about 60 percent, and Uber and Lyft were responsible for more than half of that increase, according to a study published this year. Another study found that Uber and Lyft have added 5.7 billion miles of driving annually in cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. [...]

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/5/20947737/uber-lyft-cities-congestion-pollution-income-inequality-nyu

[SKYMTL]

Funny the congestion problems are being blamed on ridesharing but no mention made of the absolute disaster that's the SF public transport system. 

Ask anyone who actually lives in the Bay Area and you'll hear a million reasons why they don't touch Muni Metro and usually take ridesharing from the Caltrain hub instead of public transport.