Drinking and Not Driving Main Reason for Rideshare

Lyft’s shares have fallen short of expectations after it began trading last week. The ridesharing company was the first of the major ride-hailing companies to go public. Ridesharing is part taxi, part Silicon Valley, tech company that uses an app to connect riders to appropriate drivers based on their destination.

According to a study published in the Journal of Transport and Land Use conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, many people are turning to ridesharing services, like Uber and Lyft, to mitigate risky behavior like drinking and driving and to avoid parking issues. About 36 percent of passengers reported using ridesharing services, so that they could go out and drink. While about a fifth reported using the service to avoid parking difficulty and expenses.

The research was conducted over the course of 14 weeks in the fall of 2016 in Denver, Colorado. Passengers in 308 Uber and Lyft rides were given a survey asking them about their ride habits and demographic information.