Does Uber really prevent drunken driving? It depends on the study

People will be less tempted to drink and drive if they have an easier, safer way to get home after a night out.

Uber has plenty of incentive to make this case and has reported on declines in drunken-driving incidents in several major cities after the company started providing ride-hailing services, beginning in San Francisco in 2010.

That’s a significant reduction, amounting to about 40 fewer collisions per month.

[...] it’s good news for Uber, which could use some positive attention after months of hurtling from one public relations crisis to the next.

“We need more evidence, but the trend seems to be pointing toward ride-sharing reducing drunk driving incidents,” said Jessica Lynn Peck, a doctoral candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center who wrote the study, a working paper that was published in January.

Noli Brazil, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Southern California who wrote that paper with David Kirk, an associate professor at Oxford University, said common-sense arguments — that ride-hailing apps should prevent drunken driving — make some sense on an individual level.

Researchers on the subject, he added, had to deal with a dizzying array of variables, including state laws, time frames and communities’ access to public transportation.

A report this year from researchers at West Carolina University also found that Uber service led to declines in fatal accident rates across the country.

“Several independent studies have shown Uber’s presence in cities can help reduce drunk driving,” a company spokeswoman said.

Peck, whose research used collisions data from the New York Department of Motor Vehicles and the state’s Department of Transportation from 2007 to 2013, agreed that the growing body of research suggests that ride-hailing services lead to fewer alcohol-related car accidents.

“I think anyone who does statistics for a living is going to be really careful about saying they are sure,” she said.

Because we are scientists, and we are never sure.