Does using get-a-ride services vary in urban, suburban, and rural communities?

Get-a-ride services such as Uber and Lyft are especially common in cities, but the Center’s Future of Transportation study found these services are becoming common in suburban and rural areas as well.

Are get-a-ride services primarily an urban phenomenon? In urban areas, three percent of respondents reported that they frequently use services such as Uber and Lyft, and 18 percent report using them sometimes (see the chart below).

Yet get-a-ride is not unknown in suburban and rural areas; in suburbia, one percent said they frequently use get-a-ride services like Uber or Lyft, and 12 percent of suburbanites sometimes use get-a-ride. In rural areas, two percent frequently use get-a-ride services, while nine percent report using them sometimes.

On the other hand, 10 percent of those living in rural areas said that they rarely use get-a-ride – this compared to 17 percent of suburbanites and 21 percent of urban dwellers.

Who does not use get-a-ride services? Seventy-nine percent of those who live in rural areas said they never use get-a-ride services — this compares with 70 percent of suburban residents and 58 percent of urban dwellers who said the same.

 

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July 25, 2017