Is Uber Reducing California DUIs?

Could ride-sharing apps like Uber make a significant dent in the number of fatal accidents related to DUI in Los Angeles? Two students at Temple University are saying they already are.

Brad Greenwood and Sunil Wattal wrote a paper investigating how the entry of Uber influences the rate of alcohol-related motor vehicle homicides. Their findings—shared in a paper called “Show Me the Way to Go Home: An Empirical Investigation of Ride Sharing and Alcohol Related Motor Vehicle Homicide”–show a significant drop in the rate of DUI homicides between 2011 (when Uber entered the California market in San Francisco) and 2013.

According to The Daily Signal website, the study states that “the entrance of UberX results in a 3.6 percent–5.6 percent decrease in the rate of motor vehicle homicides per quarter in the state of California.” The authors extrapolated this data to a national level: “With more than 13 thousand deaths occurring nationally each year due to alcohol-related car crashes at a cost of 37 billion dollars, results indicate that a complete implementation of UberX would create a public welfare net of over 1.3 billion dollars to American taxpayers and save roughly 500 lives annually.”

Uber X is the least expensive level of the Uber service. Greenwood and Wattal say that the affordability of the service (as opposed to more expensive taxis or higher levels of Uber service) is keeping the DUI homicide rate down.

The Daily Signal story noted that police made only two DUI arrests in San Francisco over the 2015 New Year’s Eve holiday period, the lowest number since 2009. But those numbers didn’t hold up all over the state. According to an article last January in the Los Angeles Times, the California Highway Patrol made 219 DUI arrests in Los Angeles County during the New Year’s Eve holiday, up from 104 in 2014. Across the state CHP made 1,072 DUI arrests during the holiday in 2015 compared with 457 in 2014.

Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to offer critical insight into your case and potential defense options. Call him and his team today to begin regaining control over your case and your life.

If police stopped you for Los Angeles DUI, you may be worried and anxious. Contact Harvard Law School educated, ex-prosecutor Michael Kraut for assistance at (323) 464-6453 or online. Our team is located at 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1520, Los Angeles, California 90028.