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Ride-Hailing Services Add Traffic to Denver Roads

According to a University of Colorado study, about 34% of people would have taken transit, biked, or walked if they hadn’t used ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft. Passengers in Denver, Boulder, and various nearby suburbs were surveyed for four months.

by Staff
April 19, 2017
Ride-Hailing Services Add Traffic to Denver Roads

This study looked at ride-hailing services like Lyft in Denver and Boulder. Photo courtesy of Lyft.

2 min to read


This study looked at ride-hailing services like Lyft in Denver and Boulder. Photo courtesy of Lyft.

About 34% of people would have taken transit, biked, or walked if they hadn’t used ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft, according to a University of Colorado study by Alejandro Henao.

Henao worked as a driver for Uber and Lyft and surveyed 311 passengers over four months in Denver, Boulder, and various nearby suburbs.

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In the study, Henao looked at vehicle miles traveled impacts, parking impacts, and travel behavior. He identified himself as a grad student doing research on transportation and asked riders to take a short survey about the ride.

When asked, “How would you have traveled if Lyft/Uber wasn’t an option?” 22.2% answered public transportation, 19% said drive alone, 12.2% said wouldn’t have traveled and 11.9% said bike or walk. Other answers included taxi, carpool as a rider, other ride hailing, get a ride, car rental, and carpool as a driver.

According to the study, 63.9% drive about the same because of ride hailing while 19.7% drive a bit less and 14% drive a lot less.

When asked what they usually use ride hailing for, going out/social topped the list, followed by work, when out of town, shopping and errands, airport, and school.

According to the study, the main reason that the respondents take Lyft/Uber is for going out/drinking, followed by parking is difficult/expensive, don’t have a car available, cost, able to do something while riding, time, and weather.

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