Taxis losing customers as demand for Uber and Lyft rides show steep increase in Toronto
If your credit card bill has more Uber and Lyft charges than you'd like to admit, you're not alone, because Torontonians have been using rideshare apps at a staggering rate: around 200,000 times per day, on average, as of this month.
A report from the City of Toronto and the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute indicates that Uber and Lyft rides rose 180 per cent — nearly tripling — from September 2016 to March 2019.
And, the numbers are still going up.
Private Transportation Company (i.e., Uber/Lyft) trips have grown by 180% in 2.5 years in Toronto... and they continue to grow (at roughly 200,000 trips/day as of Nov 2019) pic.twitter.com/mfzacTEj9x
— Igor Dragovic (@idragovic26) November 20, 2019
This makes Torontonians less frequent Uber and Lyft riders than people in cities like New York City and Chicago, where the apps are used approximately 769,700 and 330,000 times per day, respectively.
Though NYC's population is 2.8 times that of Toronto (and its number of rides per day nearly 4 times more than ours), Chicago's population is slightly lower, and their number of private transportation company rides significantly higher.
How does Toronto compare to other major cities in North America?
— Igor Dragovic (@idragovic26) November 20, 2019
NY - almost 800K trips/day
Chicago - 330K trips/day
SF - 170K trips/day
Boston - almost 100K trips/day
Seattle - almost 100K trips/day pic.twitter.com/UNB1p6TakK
The data also shows that rideshare customers in Toronto are generally young when compared with all types of commuters, with more than 20 per cent of users falling between the ages of 25 and 35.
And, as we can likely all attest to, trips are most commonly taken on Friday and Saturday nights.
The majority of PTC trips are less than six kilometres pic.twitter.com/IYaT9w7Jff
— Igor Dragovic (@idragovic26) November 20, 2019
Other interesting facts about Toronto's rideshare use: most trips taken are less than 6 km, but trip distances increase the further customers live from the city centre.
And, the large majority of trips take place within the downtown core and to or from transit stations. Also, average wait times are consistently under four minutes across the city, and dropping each month.
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