How the internet is clogging up city streets?

[Photo: from VCG]

Ride-hailing services have had a big impact on the volume of traffic in New York.

Traffic in New York is slowing down. Jams are endemic in Manhattan, especially in its business districts. Daytime traffic in the busiest areas now moves almost 20% more slowly than it did five years ago.

It seems a place ripe for wide use of ride-hailing apps that, you might think, would alleviate some of the congestion.

Except, those apps appear to be making things worse as traffic has slowed in line with the growing popularity of apps such as Uber and Lyft, suggests a study by transport expert Bruce Schaller.

Over the four years of the study, the number of cars in Manhattan seeking ride-hailing fares increased by 81%. There are now about 68,000 ride-sharing drivers across New York. That's about five times the number of distinctive yellow cabs licensed to operate there, he found. There are so many that they spend about 45% of their time empty just cruising for fares. That is a lot of unused cars clogging a lot of busy streets.

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI] 

(News source: BBC)