Uber Residential Pick-Ups in New York City Reflect Demographic Realities

Uber and similar transportation apps have forever changed the landscape for metropolitan mobility. This company, backed by investors such as Goldman Sachs and Google Ventures, has expanded to over 60 countries and tries to maintain the lowest fare per trip compared to private rides and taxis. As seen in cities such as Paris and Mexico City, cab drivers have been perturbed by the ability of Uber to offer such low fares for trips. But who is Uber’s target demographic and are they truly on a mission to provide equitable access to transport in global cities?

Two maps generated by Reuben-Fischer Baum, a contributor to the online paper FiveThirtyEight.com, shows data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Taxi and Limousine Commission in New York City. The data from a 5-month period in 2014 showed the average number of pick-ups performed by both Uber and traditional cab services per census tract. These data were then indexed against the city-wide average to remain consistent with NYC-specific ridership trends. The resulting maps look nearly identical, with the highest pick-up rates in Manhattan and neighborhoods in and around Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This reveals that ridership rates for both Uber and cab companies are equally distributed geographically. Both maps display that those in wealthy Manhattan neighborhoods or live across a bridge or tunnel are disproportionately more likely to order a taxi or Uber pick-up. With a correlation coefficient of 0.89 out of the potential 1.0, signifying an exact correlation, the data shows the two modes to be ordered equally as frequently for residential pickups.

Uber and taxi ridership were also compared to the demographic data of residents and found that lower median income correlated to fewer pick-ups. The analysis also considered pick-up frequency relative to public transit access and found that the greater the amount of nearby stations correlated to a higher amount of pick-ups, which seemed to be an anomaly. Uber and taxi rides, thus, seem to be complementary to public transit and the predominating hypothesis attributes this to car-ownership in urban areas. If a New Yorker lacks their own vehicle, they are forced to get around by some combination of public transit and Uber or taxi service. This argument may explain the high correlation between nearby station frequency and the level of Uber and taxi pick-ups. Despite their rigorous campaigns highlighting how its services are useful for lower-income neighborhoods, Uber continues to be most utilized by those who could also afford to ride in a private taxi cab. Perhaps as new renditions of the app like UberPool, a car-pooling version of Uber, develop, their costs will be competitive enough to challenge the expense of personal car ownership.

Read more:

Public Transit Should Be Uber’s New Best Friend.  (2015, August 28).  Retrieved from: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/public-transit-should-be-ubers-new-best-friend/