The implications of ridehailing for risky driving and road accident injuries and fatalities

Abstract

The nature of transportation has fundamentally transformed in recent years with the rise of ridehailing providers such as Uber. Yet, few studies have examined whether there is an association between ridehailing and rates of road accident injuries, and virtually all of the existing studies focus on the exceptional case of the United States. In this study, we exploit differences in the timing of the deployment of Uber across Britain to test the association between the advent of Uber's ridehailing services and rates of fatal and non-fatal road accidents. We find that the deployment of Uber in Great Britain is associated with a marginally significant reduction in the number of serious road accident injuries (e.g., fractures and internal injuries), although not the number of serious accidents.Slight injuries (e.g., sprains and bruises) declined outside of London after the rollout of Uber, but increased within London. We do not observe a statistically significant association between Uber and traffic fatalities. One interpretation for the decline in serious road injuries is that Uber may be a substitute form of transportation for risky drivers, including drink-drivers. However, ridehailing is also a substitute for public transit, particularly buses. The increase in the number of cars on the road may explain why slight injuries increased in London following Uber's rollout.

The Social, Economic, and Environmental Impacts of Ridesourcing Services: A Literature Review

“…Ridesourcing services provide social equity benefits by providing increased access to transportation for older adults, particularly those that cannot drive [18]. They can also encourage a car-free lifestyle, reduce car ownership, and offer older adults more freedom of movement so they can rely less on friends or family to meet their needs for transportation [38,50,51].…”

“…Although ridesourcing services have created job opportunities for many people, there are concerns about unsecured labor rights, underemployment, and income instability. Labor rights are not secure in the ridesourcing industry and it may shift individuals away from secure employment to unsecured or footloose employment [50]. Moreover, the development of ridesourcing services has pushed many overqualified and educated people into underemployment.…”

“…There is also some evidence suggesting that ridesourcing platforms have catered to wealthier people. Due to obstacles, including relatively high costs and the need for a credit card and smartphone, low-income individuals are less able to use ridesourcing [50,91]. Deka and Fei [68] show that the frequency of using ridesourcing services increases with increases in income above USD 50,000 in the U.S.…”

Ridehailing and alcohol-involved traffic fatalities in the United States: The average and heterogeneous association of uber

“…A second limitation is related to the U.S.-centric focus of our study. To date, there has been very little research on the association between ridehailing and traffic fatalities focused on countries besides the United States (the few exceptions include recent studies of Chile, Great Britain, and South Africa), yet two of Uber's top five markets (London and Sao Paulo) are not in the United States and the majority of ridehailing trips worldwide occur outside of the United States, with an estimated 70 percent in Asia alone [25][26][27][28]. Hence, future research will need to examine the association between ridehailing and traffic fatalities beyond the United States before a full accounting of the impacts of ridehailing can be determined.…”

Critical Factors Analysis of Severe Traffic Accidents Based on Bayesian Network in China

“…Researchers from Japan have evaluated the traffic safety of 46 prefectures in Japan and concluded that natural binding force, such as social rules and social capital, could reduce the dangerous driving behaviors [21]. Researchers from several European countries have deeply integrated police investigation data and accident reports and established an accident information collection and analysis system to analyze numerous traffic accidents in Europe [22][23][24][25][26]. It is found that the proportion of accidents caused by "vehicles driving off the roads" is up to 70% [27].…”