Drunk driving fatalities have fallen by 6 percent thanks to ridesharing, Uber data analysis finds

Ridesharing apps like Uber appear to have noticeably reduced drunk driving fatalities in the United States, an analysis of internal Uber data conducted by University of California, Berkeley, researchers Michael Anderson and Lucas Davis found.

Studies on the effect ridesharing has had on traffic deaths have been "inconsistent" and "often contradictory," the authors wrote in their working paper, which is available on the National Bureau of Economic Research's website. They noted that the previous unsatisfactory attempts to answer the question have relied on publicly-available data. But after getting their hands on "more detailed proprietary data" the authors more confident in their own findings, which suggest that ridesharing "has decreased U.S. alcohol-related traffic fatalities by 6.1 percent," while also reducing the number of overall traffic fatalities by 4.0 percent. That means the apps have likely saved hundreds of lives every year and the "annual life-saving benefits range from $2.3 to $5.4 billion."