Its a common story in urban areas Cabs do not properly serve low-income and minority areas leaving residents to the uncertainties of public transit assuming there is some or to their own devices But can Lyft Uber and other ridesharing services remedy that A new study suggests that contrary to much opinion and even recent experience the ever expanding ridesharing industry is doing a good job of serving those communities Thats even as earlier studies have shown that Uber and Lyft tend to focus on higher-income areas This newest study a dissertation from the UCLA Institute for Transportation Studies did indeed find that many ridesharing customers hail from wealthier neighborhoods according to a summary The new study though which focused on LA County found that neighborhoods with the lowest rate of vehicle ownership those areas have the highest concentrations of minority populations tend to have the most ride-sharing pick-ups and drop-offs The findings were based on an analysis of 63 million Lyft rides that took place in fall 2016 Virtually no neighborhood in the countrys most densely populated urban area has been left unpenetrated by Lyft according to the report The companys drivers serve 998 percent of the population of LA County That in itself suggests that communities arent being systematically excluded Thats hardly meant to suggest that low-income and minority consumers face no hassles when it comes to ordering Lyft Uber or other ridesharing services Via another ridesharing service earlier this year faced accusations that it discriminated against such consumers by refusing to service certain neighborhoods in Washington DC The company reportedly had been violating local non-discrimination laws by by excluding two of the Districts predominantly black neighborhoods from its coverage area The company denied those charges saying its plan was to service the densest areas of the city with its rides in part as a response to ongoing maintenance problems with the local subway with service expansions coming later Those accusations against Via come on top of reports that local restaurants often decline to deliver food to those areas and that individual drivers for ridesharing services are reluctant to accept jobs that take them to those neighborhoods That would go against a local law enacted in 2014 that requires companies using digital dispatch technology to provide service throughout the entire city The new UCLA study underscored the appeal of ridesharing to consumers who own no cars or trucks The study said that for every 10 percent increase in the number of households without vehicles there is a 7 percent increase in the number of Lyft trips made by individual consumers Most households that own no vehicles 80 percent of them according to the summary of the report are in that situation because of financial limitations not personal choice And majority-black neighborhoods have the highest share of zero-car households in Los Angeles compared to any other racial group the summary said adding that most of those areas did not enjoy full service from cab companies and that most of those Lyft rides were shared carpool-type trips Lyft Uber and other ridesharing services may serve in the longer term to reduce public transit options in cities services upon which low-income and minority communities often rely Most ridesharing consumers are urbanites according to one such look at the topic and the relatively low prices of those rides along with the relative reliability when compared to some mass transit systems can lure consumers away from subways elevated trains and buses Ridership on public mass transit is down in nearly every major US city the The American Prospect recently reported with some of that downward trend blamed on the rise of ridesharing services Ridership declined significantly on San Franciscos new BART train line to the airport as Uber and Lyft saw their ridership to the airport rise almost six-fold Lyft seems to have brought a more reliable form of transportation to some low-income and minority areas in one of the countrys largest metro areas But the overall impact those companies will have on how poor and minority consumers get around and pay for their transit remains to be seen Join The Conversation Has the problem of fraud by identity theft gotten too big for humans to handle Socure would say Yes Thats why the company is spearheading the movement to hand this job over to artificial intelligence AI Socure Founder Sunil Madhu and PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster will discuss this topic in an upcoming digital discussion taking place July 19 2018 at 1 00 PM EDT Enter your work e-mail below to access details for the upcoming conversation