There’s no excuse for driving impaired

Edward Hutchison
Sharing the Ride with Lyft
7 min readApr 24, 2019

Across the nation, an estimated 30 people die every day from alcohol related impaired driving and roughly 16% of crashes involve drugs other than alcohol. There are financial costs too. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that impaired driving costs the US $44 billion annually. With expanded transportation options like ridesharing, there’s no excuse for these preventable tragedies.

Most recently, Sioux Falls reported the lowest drunk driving arrests in more than a decade after Lyft’s first full year of operation. Miami-Dade, the largest police department in Southeastern US, reported in 2018 that DUI arrests were down 65% in part because of ridesharing. Similarly, a study by UC Davis and Moll Law Group also found significant declines in major cities throughout California. Other academic studies also align with this trend. And in our annual economic survey, we found that 71% of riders are less likely to drive substance impaired due to the availability of Lyft.

In our analysis below, matching up Lyft activity with DUI data and trends tell an interesting story with even more insights.

But before we take a deeper dive, we must first acknowledge the people that power Lyft’s technology and contribute to the positive safety trends. Lyft’s driver community is comprised of nearly 1.5 million individuals who drive part-time and are able to scale up quickly to meet ride demand due to dynamic pricing. In fact, 91% drive less than 20 hours per week and 96% say a flexible schedule is very or extremely important. The flexible pool of drivers and dynamic pricing are key to any positive safety trends and the advantage Lyft has over traditional modes of transportation like taxis.

So how does Lyft activity coincide with DUI occurrence and trends? Let’s take a look.

Lyft Activity and DUI Occurrence

NHTSA reports that most impaired driving incidents happen during nights and weekends. In fact, “the rate of alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2017 was 3.6 times higher at night than during the day” and 28% of all drivers involved in fatal crashes on weekends were alcohol-impaired, compared to 15% during the week.

Lyft activity coincides with these timeframes. For example, the majority of Lyft rides take place outside of commute hours, such as nights and weekends. Moreover, our recent analysis shows that more Lyft pick-ups and drop-offs occur in entertainment and nightlife neighborhoods during the evening hours than during the rest of the day.

So Lyft activity fits the general time frame of DUI incidents, but how does it align with declining DUI trends overall? For this, we looked at public data on DUI incidents in markets across the country. Here’s what we observed.

Lyft Activity and DUI Trends

We gathered yearly DUI data and plotted it on Lyft ride volume (starting from the second year of Lyft entry) for the same period of time. We looked at the following cities: Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego and Madison. Our analysis shows a rise in ride volume and a fall in DUI incidents in these cities which seems to support the findings from academic studies.

Chicago

From 2014 to 2017, Chicago saw a 40% decrease in DUI incidents while Lyft rides increased in the same period.

Note: We are defining “arrest” as incident. Also incident count and ride count are not the same scale.

Atlanta

From 2014 to 2017, Atlanta saw a 41% decrease in DUI incidents while Lyft rides increased in the same period.

Note: We are defining “arrest charged” as incident. Also incident count and ride count are not the same scale.

San Francisco

From 2013 to 2017, San Francisco saw a 31% decrease in DUI incidents while Lyft rides increased in the same period.

Note: Incident count and ride count are not the same scale.

San Diego

From 2014 to 2017, San Diego saw an 18% decrease in DUI incidents while Lyft rides increased in the same period.

Note: We are defining “arrests” as incidents. Also incident count and ride count are not the same scale.

Madison

From 2015 to 2018, Madison saw a 20% decrease in DUI incidents while Lyft rides increased in the same period.

Note: We are defining “arrests” as incidents. Also incident count and ride count are not the same scale.

To be clear, our analysis is not meant to show causality between Lyft activity and DUI incidents. Instead, we are simply making an observation. There are many factors that could explain the decline of DUI incidents such as enforcement, drunk driving laws and public awareness campaigns, among others. But while we look to better understand our impact, we are not wasting any time: Lyft is partnering with experts and committing resources to improve road safety.

Direct Impact Through Partnerships

The trends are positive to see, but we all know more needs to be done to reduce impaired driving. That is why we are proud of the relationship Lyft has forged with government and law enforcement organizations to have an active role.

National Impact

Our partners in road safety include the National Sheriffs’ Association, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives. Later this year, Lyft is sponsoring for the second year in a row the International Association of Chiefs of Police training conference on Drugs, Alcohol and Impaired Driving. And to assist individuals who would normally pay their own way to the training conference, we are funding three scholarships for law enforcement professionals.

State Impact

During the 2018 holidays, Lyft teamed up with the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) to distribute five state grants to California, Illinois, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Washington to curb alcohol and drug impaired driving. The results were phenomenal. Through a combination of ride coupons, social media campaigns and press coverage, state agencies were effective in generating public awareness and helping people consider Lyft as an alternative to getting behind the wheel impaired.

“GHSA is proud to have partnered with Lyft to help encourage people to use ride hailing services as an alternative to impaired driving,” said Jonathan Adkins, GHSA Executive Director. “We hope to build on this partnership moving forward and that more people will consider the safety benefits of Lyft as a result of our efforts.”

Other Lyft initiatives around drug impaired driving include past partnerships with the Colorado Department of Transportation, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition.

Local Impact

In addition to national and state engagement, Lyft has partnered with local organizations like the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) to help DC area residents celebrate safely with free Lyft rides on major drinking holidays. In 2018 alone, our partnership with WRAP’s SoberRide® program resulted in a significant decrease in the number of potential drunk drivers in the DC metro region, preventing a total of 5,178 potential drunk drivers from getting on the road.

Furthermore, since 2017, Lyft has made over 400,000 free rides available through our partnerships with Anheuser Busch and Diageo to further encourage ridesharing as an alternative to impaired driving.

“Lyft is making a big impact on reducing impaired driving,” said Sheriff (ret.) John Whetsel. “Before Lyft and ridesharing, there were limited transportation options. Now people have an affordable, reliable and convenient choice in ridesharing and can avoid getting behind the wheel impaired. Lyft is truly committed to improving road safety.”

Our work and collaboration with government and law enforcement is only beginning. Together with our partners we are setting a long term vision to improving road safety and ending impaired driving incidents altogether.

Our Commitment

The safety of the Lyft community is our top priority. Since day one, we have worked hard to design policies and features that protect both our drivers and our riders while using the Lyft platform including:

  • In-app photos of the driver and vehicle, real-time ride tracking, digital receipts, two-way rating systems, and background checks for every driver. Passengers can also share their exact, real-time location with friends and family.
  • A Trust & Safety team available 24/7 for emergencies and a dedicated Critical Response Line to reach specially trained experts on the phone.
  • A strict zero-tolerance policy and any behavior threatening the safety or comfort of drivers or passengers is not tolerated and will result in a ban from using Lyft.

Lyft serves a critical role in our cities. With continued dialogue and collaboration with government and law enforcement partners, we are committed to improving road safety in and out of the vehicle, and we believe ridesharing can serve as a strong alternative to impaired driving.

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Edward Hutchison
Sharing the Ride with Lyft

Policy Partnership Manager with Lyft with a focus on roadway safety, curbing impaired driving and law enforcement partners.