Good results blossom all over the place when you keep unions, licensing bureaucracy and class-envy-pushing politicians out of the picture.This is from the abstract of a new research paper titled Ride-Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime by economists Sean Mulholland and Angela Dills:The advent of smart-phone based, ride-sharing applications has revolutionized the vehicle for hire market. Advocates point to the ease of use and lower wait times compared to hailing a taxi or pre-arranging limousine service. Others argue that proper government oversight is necessary to protect ride-share passengers from driver error or vehicle part failure and violence from unlicensed strangers. Using a unique panel of over 150 cities and counties from 2010 through 2013, we investigate whether the introduction of the ride-sharing service, Uber, is associated with changes in fatal vehicle crashes and crime. We find that Uber’s entry lowers the rate of DUIs and fatal accidents. For most specifications, we also find declines in arrests for assault and disorderly conduct.Here is a summary of some of the researcher’s main empirical findings:1. Fatal Accident Rate. Specifically, we find that entry [of Uber] is associated with a 6% decline in the fatal accident rate. Fatal night-time crashes experience a slightly larger decline of 18%.In both the weighted and unweighted estimations, we also discover a continued decline in the overall fatal crash rate and the rate of vehicular fatalities for the months following the introduction of Uber. For each additional year of operation, Uber’s continued presence is associated with a 16.6% decline in vehicular fatalities.2. DUIs and Crime. We find a large and robust decline in the arrest rate for DUIs. Depending upon specification, DUIs are 15 to 62% lower after the entry of Uber. The average annual rate of decline after the introduction of Uber is 51.3% per year for DUIs. For most specifications, we also observe declines in the arrest rates for non-aggravated assaults and disorderly conduct.Here’s the paper’s conclusion:Claiming consumer protection, some community’s leaders have sought greater government oversight and limits on the entry of ride-sharing services. Articles often cite concerns about the safety of riders and drivers in this comparatively unregulated service.We investigate and find that many of these concerns are, at least on net, unwarranted. Using a differences-in-differences specification and controlling for county-specific linear trends, we find that the entry of ride-sharing tends to decrease fatal vehicular crashes. We also observe declines in arrests for assault, DUI, and disorderly conduct. In many cases, these declines become larger the longer the service is available in an area.MP: We already know that ride-sharing services like Uber are better, cheaper, and more convenient than traditional taxis. We’ve now got even more reasons to love Uber — it provides huge public safety benefits to the communities it serves by lowering fatal accidents and arrests for DUI, assault and disorderly conduct.Prediction: It’s probably already obvious to many today, but I predict future generations will look back on ride-sharing services like Uber and consider them to be one of the most important and significant innovative breakthroughs in transportation of the 21st century.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Economic liberty is a beautiful thing
Let's start the day with a here's-something-that's going-right story. Mark J. Perry at the American Enterprise Institute says people are zipping around town with greater safety, comfort and enjoyment and less expense thanks to ride-sharing:
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It's gonna get even better with driverless cars and Uber is a big player there, just landed a chunk of Saudi cash, whoopee, see you at the glue factory.
ReplyDeleteAnd driverless cars are going to put all the current drivers out of business by a year from now?
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, Yasir al Rumayyan of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund - as well as Arriana Huffington - sits on Uber's board. And Travis Kalanick has been accused of rank sexism. Does this mean Uber is not a great business model?
ReplyDeleteAnd a former adviser to the Most Equal Comrade has held an executive position at Uber since last summer.
ReplyDeleteDo I agree with the social policies of Apple? Hell, no, but am I going to toss my iPhone in the river? And if I were in the market for a Diesel engine, I'd no doubt choose a Cummins, even though it is a disgusting organization in many ways. Who else is making Diesel engines of that quality? Milton Friedman said that the beauty of the free market gives the opportunity to people who might not otherwise give each other the time of day to enter into transactions that leave them both better off
No problem. Did I say I had a problem with that? I'm trying to keep things from pulling the mattress out from under me, maybe even making my bed, but lying in it nonetheless. It won't be long that you will be marveling that people are zipping around town with greater safety, comfort and enjoyment and less expense thanks to robots. As Thoreau said, give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.
ReplyDeleteI dunno how long it will take, but it will likely be a shorter time before I ride in one than when I ride in one I own. Honda says 6 years. Not long, I guess, unless you're a pre-teen.
ReplyDelete"We under-promise and over-deliver as a promise, as a company. There are a lot of promises talked about by a lot of companies," said Jim Keller, chief engineer for Honda Research and Development Americas, referring to the pervasive industry hype. With the current roll-out of semi-autonomous functions, which it says will pave the way for full autonomy on highways by 2020, Honda says it differs from rivals, whose self-driving efforts have centered on their luxury models."
But if our clueless State Departments keep diddling around trying to make peace instead of dropping a few strategic big ones, we may all be incinerated in our beds by way before then if I believe some of the stuff I read here. By then, the current players will be so sleep-deprived from making hate, that they'll want to go back to trying to make love.
Yes, economic liberty is a beautiful thing. If you can pass the hair test to get a yob.
I know, I know, we're all supposed to go out and create our own yobs. Who knows how it will all evolve, but we got enough screwed-up people here already that it is likely there will be even more screwed-up people in 6 years stateside, if not worldwide. Things and stuff don't necessarily make us happy. But what's happy? War is fun, right? Struggle and sacrifice, fight and die, maybe that's what we all need to save Western Civilization. Maybe that is as feckless a fight as that put up by the Luddite.
ReplyDeleteFuture generations will look back on ride-sharing services like Uber and consider them a blip on the radar. But there will be other innovations, many others, and I plan to try to keep up as I always have and I am sure you do too.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get the idea hat war was fun?
ReplyDeleteI know it's not fun, but things wax so hawkish here when you trash almost all current peace efforts and blame our dearth of military victories on the left and other silly people that I thought it seemed like fun and games to you.
ReplyDeletePeace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. Thomas Merton
Humans subject to licensing obviously resent those who start doing the same thing without licensing. There will be licensing for either all or none doing the same thing. That's all. Drive, he said. Till you get replaced by robots. That's all.
ReplyDeleteWho's making efforts at "peace?" Certainly not the post-American State Department of the Most Equal Comrade?
ReplyDeleteIf one loves freedom, the objective is for fewer and fewer people to be subject to licensing.
ReplyDeleteSo that is a matter of loving freedom? So what do we do away with and what do we retain? Surely not bar and medical licensing exams? CPAs and other professionals must be licensed in the states where they hang their shingles. But, oh, those exclusive and anything but rare Uber drivers? Never. It's an infringement on the freedoms of the American public.
ReplyDeleteI can probably see brain surgeons and airline pilots needing to be licensed, but IM hard-pressed to see a need in any other occupations
ReplyDeleteIn most fields, it's just a scheme to keep newcomers out.
ReplyDeleteWell, if newcomers can't cough up the licensing fee and pass the required examinations and background checks, well, guess they need to find other work, right? That's your answer to someone who objects to drug testing, the majority of failures being marijuana smokers within the past month. What a travesty that is.
ReplyDeleteYou don't want somebody wacked out on some wild substance in a responsible position where his or her team members are depending on him or her to deliver
ReplyDeleteUse of marijuana shows up for a month. What's whacked out about that, freedom lover? I thought you were big on common sense.
ReplyDeleteWell, I take our State Department at its word when it says it works for peace. Same for the UN until it is replaced by another global peacemaking forum.
ReplyDeleteI don't take the State Department's word for one God-damn thing.
ReplyDelete