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It makes a great story: The Department of Motor Vehicles registered some 86,000 drivers under new “transportation service company” rules in 2015, Virginians are availing themselves of Uber and Lyft ridership services in record numbers, and the rate of alcohol-related automobile crashes declined markedly last year. It stands to reason, more Virginians are taking rides with Uber and Lyft instead of driving under the influence.
“While it may be too soon to say definitively that the availability of Uber and Lyft in Virginia played a major role in that, there appears to be a causal connection,” said DMV Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb in a statement reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
As regular Bacon’s Rebellion readers know, I’m a big fan of Uber and Lyft. They are spearheading the greatest transportation revolution since the invention of the automobile. But let’s not get carried away. It is too soon to credit the transportation service companies with playing a “major” role in reducing drunk driving.
The chart above is taken from DMV data, with provisional 2015 numbers plugged in. It shows clearly that the steep decline in alcohol-related accidents started in 2013, two years before the surge in Uber-Lyft activity. My working hypothesis is that Virginia courts and police intensified their crackdown of drunk driving around that time (as well they should have, given the soaring numbers before then). It’s fantastic that Uber and Lyft give late-night revelers a convenient alternative to driving while intoxicated, and I’m sure they helped in 2015. But I suspect that the bulk of the credit goes to the courts and police.
— JAB
