# The ride-hailing red herring

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2020-02-15

chicago, cities, lyft, mobility, red-herring, ride-sharing, ride-hailing, toronto, transit, uber, university-of-toronto, urbanism

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There's a lot of data/speculation out there about the impact of ride-hailing apps. Many dense urban centers are claiming that they have increased traffic (slowed average speeds) and pulled people away from public transit. The University of Toronto published [this study](https://brandondonnelly.com/2019/11/20/ride-hailing-in-toronto/) last year. And the WSJ recently published [this chart](https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ride-hail-utopia-that-got-stuck-in-traffic-11581742802?mod=hp_lead_pos7) for Chicago:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4da0ff3bbf4bcb94caa0fba156a9f664.png)

To be honest, I'm not sure how much of the above is a result of ride-hailing apps, overall urban growth, [e-commerce deliveries](https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-cities-across-america-the-fight-for-curb-space-heats-up-during-the-holidays-11576238403?mod=article_inline), public transit disinvestment, or other factors. But what is clear is that ride-hailing is pretty convenient and most (if not all) cities are seeing massive growth in this space.

But all of this feels to me like a bit of a red herring. People will obviously choose what is most convenient and relatively affordable. And congestion was a problem well before people started using these apps (demand > road supply). The only solution I have seen work is to price congestion/roads.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/the-ride-hailing-red-herring)*