Ride-sharing

Con 1: Ride-sharing aggravates traffic and environmental problems while taking advantage of riders.

Ride-sharing adds billions of additional driving miles each year, especially in nine metropolitan areas (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and D.C.). At least 40 percent of the time, drivers are traveling without passengers in the car, adding more miles and vehicle emissions that wouldn’t exist without ride-sharing. As many as 60 percent of riders would have used public transit, walked, biked, or not taken their trip at all if ride-sharing had not been an option. That means nearly two-thirds of ride-sharing trips added additional cars to the roads. [2] [3] [9] [10]

Studies confirm that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft increase urban traffic congestion, worsening bottlenecks during peak hours. The high frequency of drivers searching for passengers, navigating via apps, and often driving without passengers contributes to both increased traffic and significant distracted driving, raising safety risks. Not surprisingly, given the greater number of cars on the road, researchers have also found that ride-sharing contributes to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. [2] [9] [10]

Ride-sharing has also hurt public transportation. According to a 2022 study of 305 urban areas between January 2006 and December 2017 by researchers at the A. B. Freeman School of Business, bus passenger trips declined 7-9 percent after Uber entered the area. [19]

Rideshare services can also be surprisingly inconsistent, from surge pricing to long wait times and even canceled trips. Because of the app-based nature of the services, companies can raise prices within minutes of increased traffic in any given area. Author Sarah Jaffe notes that the practice started with Uber, and that the company’s

sudden price spikes turned a short ride home into a luxury good. Uber spokespeople would suggest that riders simply wait for prices to fall again, but anyone who’s ever been stranded at closing time or missed the last subway knows that waiting sometimes isn’t an option.[4]

Finally, many rideshare companies can be woefully inadequate in meeting the needs of riders with disabilities, despite the companies’ claims to the contrary. Although riders can indicate their need for special assistance, many of the companies have a limited number of WAV (wheelchair-accessible vehicle) rides or drivers willing to assist disabled passengers with their belongings. [17]

Con 2: Rideshare drivers earn low pay and receive few, if any, standard worker benefits.

Rideshare companies pay drivers below minimum wage, offer little job security, and offer even fewer economic benefits for covering operating costs. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, “Uber drivers earn less than what 90 percent of workers earn,” and their hourly compensation “falls below the mandated minimum wage in nine of 20 major markets.” Plus, drivers routinely lack the standard employment protections offered traditional workers, including overtime pay, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, paid sick days, paid family leave, health and safety protections, the right to a union, and discrimination and sexual harassment protections.[12] [15] [16]

A 2018 report from economists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the New School found that 40 percent of ride-sharing drivers “have incomes so low they qualify for Medicaid and another 16 percent have no health insurance; 18 percent qualify for federal supplemental nutrition assistance (nearly twice the rate for New York City workers overall).” A small Human Rights Watch survey in Texas in 2025 confirmed that this has remained the status quo. [16] [18]

On top of the low pay and absence of employee benefits, drivers must of course supply and maintain their own car and pay for gas, insurance, and taxes, further undercutting the attractiveness of this “side hustle” in the first place.

Con 3: Rideshare companies often deny responsibility for accidents and have a history of poor driver screening, putting passengers at risk.

Because drivers are classified as independent contractors and not employees, rideshare companies may not take responsibility for negligent drivers and their accidents. Companies can be liable if they were negligent in hiring (failing to conduct proper background checks) or in supervising their drivers (ignoring driver complaints) or if the app caused a driver to be distracted. But these actions can be difficult to prove in court, most often necessitating costly legal representation for the consumer. [1] [11]

While taxi drivers are subject to rigorous security screening involving fingerprint checks through the FBI database, rideshare drivers are subject to limited background checks and are not always required to disclose past legal issues. Rechecks of drivers, for crimes committed after they’ve been hired, are often sporadic at best. A 2016 lawsuit brought by the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco revealed that 25 drivers with serious criminal records, such as murder and kidnapping, had passed Uber’s background checks. A 2025 New York Times investigation revealed that Uber was still hiring drivers convicted of child abuse, assault, and stalking, among other felonies. Furthermore, drivers who had been arrested, but not convicted, of sexual assault had been hired whereupon they allegedly assaulted passengers. “We are def[initely] not doing everything we can,” Brooke Anderson, then Uber’s head of safety communications, said in a 2018 email exchange exposed by the Times.[30] [31] [32] [37] [45]

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, who sued Uber for allegedly failing to protect consumers from fraud and harm, said of the company’s security screening process, which does not include fingerprinting, “It is completely worthless.” [33] [34]

A December 2019 report from Uber stated that, among riders and drivers, there had been 10 murders in 2017 and nine in 2018 and 2,936 sexual assaults (ranging from nonconsensual touching to rape) in 2017 and 3,045 in 2018. One woman wrote in an open letter from 14 victims of sexual harassment and rape by Uber drivers, “Although I immediately reported what happened to Uber, shockingly, this predator continues to drive for Uber to this day. I am 21 years old and will have to live with this the rest of my life.” [35] [36]