Uber service faster in low income Seattle neighborhoods, initial study finds

Your wait time for an Uber ride in Seattle is shorter if you are in a lower income neighborhood. Alternatively, wait times are longer for an Uber in wealthier neighborhoods, according to a new University of Washington study that compares Uber service across different neighborhoods in the Seattle region. The paper was published in the October issue the Journal of Transport Geography. "We found that all else being equal, lower income areas have a shorter average waiting time for an UberX. That was completely not what we expected to find,” said senior author Don MacKenzie , a UW assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. "That said, this is only one way of measuring whether Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) are providing equitable access for all their customers.' MacKenzie is also collaborating with researchers from MIT and Stanford University on further studies to capture and quantify other dimensions of racial and gender discrimination in TNC operations across different cities. Ride-sourcing companies like Uber and its competitor Lyft broke into the urban transportation market about four years ago and have grown in popularity among customers seeking point-to-point rides on demand, often for less money than traditional taxicabs.