Ride-hailing technology mitigates effects of driver racial discrimination, but effects of residential segregation persist.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
; 121(41): e2408936121, 2024 Oct 08.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39348538
ABSTRACT
We assess racial disparities in the service quality of app-based ride-hailing services, like Uber and Lyft, by simulating their operations in the city of Chicago using empirical data. To generate driver cancellation rate disparities consistent with controlled experiments (up to twice as large for Black riders as for White riders), we estimate that more than 3% of drivers discriminate by race. We find that the capabilities of ride-hailing technology to rapidly rematch after a cancellation and prioritize long-waiting customers heavily mitigates the effects of driver discrimination on rider wait times, reducing average discrimination-induced disparities to less than 1 min-an order of magnitude less than traditional taxis. However, our results suggest that even in the absence of direct driver discrimination, Black riders in Chicago wait about 50% longer, on average, than White riders because of historically informed geographic residential patterns. We estimate that if Black riders in the city had the same wait times as White riders, the collective travel time saved would be worth $4.2 million to $7.0 million per year.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Racism
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
/
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A
/
Proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the United States of America
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
United States