SAN FRANCISCO:

A Mobility Case Study

HOW UBER WORKS

INTRODUCTION

SECTION ONE
Improving the Rider Experience

10

Uber serves all parts of the city well

13

Uber is more affordable and accessible to more riders than taxis

14

SECTION TWO
Creating Opportunities for Well-Paying and Flexible Work

15

Uber driver-partners value the flexibility the platform provides

16

Driver-partners can earn more with Uber than driving taxis

17

A safe work environment

18

SECTION THREE
Supporting a Safe and Sustainable City

19

Helping to drive down DUI rates

20

Providing greater access to small and independent businesses

22

Reducing congestion on San Franciscos streets

24

Lowering the demand for parking and freeing up valuable urban real estate

26

CONCLUSION

How Uber Works

Uber is a technology company that provides a smartphone application connecting driver-partners with people
who need a ride. With Uber, theres no need to call a dispatcher or hail a car on the street: getting a ride on the
platform is as easy as tapping a button. Uber enables driver-partners to use their personal car to provide rides
and earn income.

REQUEST

RIDE

RATE

Tap to select pickup location

Type in your destination

Rate your experience

Riders enjoy the convenience of paying without cash because the cost of the ride is billed directly to the credit
card they have linked to their account. Not only are driver-partners required to pass rigorous background
checks and driving record checks, but they must meet the exacting standards of riders as well: at the end of
each trip, riders rate their experience (from 1-5 stars) and have the opportunity to leave additional written
feedback about the trip.

UberIMPACT

Introduction
In 2010, Uber created a platform on which San Francisco residents could request a ride from for-hire drivers in
the vicinity using an app. Today, Uber coordinates millions of rides in San Francisco and the surrounding area
every month, and millions more daily worldwide. By virtue of a model that utilizes smartphone technology in
new ways, Ubers platform provides a safe, convenient, and affordable way for riders to get where they need to
go at a moments notice. At the same time, the Uber platform offers a reliable and flexible earning opportunity
for many thousands of independent for-hire drivers (driver-partners). Having lowered the barriers to entering
the for-hire driver market, the Uber platform has made for-hire driving a part- or full-time opportunity available
to anyone with the necessary vehicle, skills, and driving record.
Uber supplements the for-hire options available to San Franciscans and makes for-hire transportation a practical
option anywhere in the city. According to a 2013 study commissioned by the SFMTA, San Franciscos taxis were
not a reliable on-demand option. In no zone of the city did even half of taxi rides start within 15 minutes of
request, and a great number in every zone took longer than 30 minutes (or never took place at all).1 In contrast,
Uber rides start within two or three minutes on average, and almost never more than 15 minutes after request.
Uber also provides a novel option to for-hire drivers. A taxi driver in San Francisco typically pays a gate fee of
over $100 in order to drive a ten hour shift.2 If the driver wants or needs to cut the shift short, he or she might
end the day at a net loss. Only a full day of driving results in a reasonable hourly compensation. In addition, taxi
drivers are often pressured to make side payments to the providers they depend upon for gas and dispatching
services, further reducing their income.3 Finally, the medallion system that restricts the number of taxis in
San Francisco to around 2,000 mechanically limits the number of opportunities available to drivers who want
to work.4
The Uber app works as follows: a rider is shown the nearest available driver-partners on the Uber platform, and
can request an immediate ride. The nearest driver-partner is notified of the request and can choose to accept
it or not. If he or she does not accept it, the request then goes to the next nearest driver-partner. Because the
app allocates the nearest driver to each requesting rider, the average wait time for riders is roughly three
minutes throughout the Bay Area. Low wait times mean that driver-partners spend relatively little time on the
road without a passenger. The average uberX driver-partner completes 2.1 trips per hour,5 roughly 10% more
than his or her taxi driver counterpart.6 High utilization and low wait times mean that riders can depend on the
service and pay low fares, while driver-partners, who work more efficiently than for-hire drivers not on the
Uber platform, spend more of their time earning income.

UberIMPACT

Improving the Rider Experience

UberIMPACT

As Uber has grown, its availability throughout the day and across the city has improved steadily. The following
figure demonstrates how average response times have evolved since uberX was launched in July 2012 in three
geographically distinct example neighborhoods:

WAIT TIMES CONTINUE TO IMPROVE

BAYVIEW

AS UBER SCALES

MINUTES

7.5

Average response time in minutes.

5.0
RESPONSE TIME
2.5

JAN. 13

JAN. 14

JAN. 15

JAN. 13

JAN. 14

JAN. 15

JAN. 13

JAN. 14

JAN. 15

THE MISSION

MINUTES

3.0

2.0

1.0

THE OUTER SUNSET

MINUTES

7.5

5.0

2.5

NOTE: Figures report the average response time each month since July 2012, for three neighborhoods in San Francisco. Response
time is defined as the number of minutes between the time of request and the time at which the Uber vehicle arrived to pick up the
passenger. Neighborhood areas have been approximated using a geospatial bounding box. Data reflects completed trips only, for all
vehicle products (including uberX, uberPOOL, uberXL, UberSUV, and UberBLACK).

UberIMPACT

Data is from July 2012 to May 2015.

Uber serves all parts of the city well

Ubers service is available and convenient in every neighborhood in the city. The map below depicts the
Uber completion rate, i.e., the percentage of trip requests that translate into completed trips (minus rider
cancellations), by neighborhood in San Francisco:

UBER REQUESTS ARE FULFILLED

94%

AT A HIGH RATE NO MATTER

WHERE YOU ARE IN THE CITY

98%
98%

98%

98%
98%
98%

98%

98%

98%

98%

98%

The color of each neighborhood

98%

represents the percentage of

97%

requests in that area that ended

97%

in a completed Uber trip.

98%
97%

96%

98% - 100%

98%
98%

98%
98%

97% - 98%

99%

0% - 94%

98%

98%

96% - 97%
94% - 96%

98%
97%

98%

98%

98%
98%

98%

98%

98%
98%
98%

98%

NOTE: This map shows the percentage of total requests in each neighborhood that end in a completed trip, from the month
of April 2015, across all vehicle products (including uberX, uberPOOL, uberXL, UberSUV, and UberBLACK). A request
is considered completed if the user session that generated the request completes an Uber trip within an hour of the time of request.

10

UberIMPACT

Data is from April 2015.

The 2013 study mentioned above provides a rare opportunity to compare Ubers service directly to taxis,
albeit it only on weekends.7 In no studied zone of San Francisco did as many as half of taxi trips start within 15
minutes of request, and in the worst zone, the number was less than 20%. Only a handful of comparable Uber
trips start more than 15 minutes after the request in San Francisco, and essentially none starts in more than
30 minutes.

FREQUENCY

ZONE 1

ZONE 2

ZONE 3

ZONE 4

ZONE 5

TOTAL

TAXI

38%

42%

16%

19%

37%

32%

UBER

97.9%

98%

98.7%

98.7%

98.2%

98.1%

TAXI

26%

29%

26%

22%

37%

28%

UBER

<0.1%

<0.1%

<0.1%

<0.1%

<0.1%

<0.1%

15 MIN. SERVICE

>30 MIN. SERVICE

The map below highlights the disparity in service levels between Uber and taxis in San Francisco by
demonstrating the average wait times in the zones reported in the 2013 study:

UBER OFFERS RELIABLE RIDES

WITH LOW WAIT TIMES
THROUGHOUT THE CITY

The color of each neighborhood

ZONE 2

represents the average Uber

2.05

response time on weekends

ZONE 1

(in minutes).

2.19
< 2 MINUTES
2 - 2.5 MINUTES

ZONE 4

2.5 - 3 MINUTES

2.74

3 - 3.5 MINUTES
> 3.5 MINUTES

ZONE 3
3.29
ZONE 5
2.46

Data is from April 2015.

NOTE: This map and the preceding table report the average response time for each labeled zone area. Response time is defined as
the number of minutes between the time of request and the time at which the Uber vehicle arrived to pick up the passenger. Zone
areas represent combined Zip Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs), and match the same zones referenced in the 2013 taxi report (Fig. 2.1 on
page 2-3). Uber data reflects completed trips in April 2015, for all vehicle products (including uberX, uberPOOL, uberXL, UberSUV, and
UberBLACK), for weekends only. Taxi data is for weekends only as well.8

12

UberIMPACT

Uber is more affordable and accessible to more riders than taxis

uberX is not only more readily available throughout the city at any time of day, it is also more affordable. We

Only five years in,

are able to compare the cost of real rides on the platform most easily using data from uberTAXI, Ubers taxi

Uber is completing

product. By comparing real taxi fares on uberTAXI to the computed fare had that ride been completed on uberX,

trips at a higher rate

we can estimate that, on average, uberX is 30% less expensive than a taxi in San Francisco.9

than taxis, and taxis

uberX is more affordable and more available than taxis throughout San Francisco, particularly in areas that are

are still completing

poorly served by taxis. Furthermore, Ubers software provides additional benefits to riders that are difficult

tens of millions of

to quantify. For example, the rating system and the ease with which riders can provide feedback (whether
positive or negative) provide high-frequency, actionable information to driver-partners that help keep their
service levels high. The platform records the path of every trip so that riders who suffer poor routing by driverpartners can request a refund based on an estimate of the proper fare. By storing identifying information and
location information for each driver-partner on each trip, the service maintains a high level of safety for both
riders and driver-partners.
Publicly available evidence suggests that taxis in San Francisco complete roughly 25,000,000 trips per year.10
Only five years in, Uber is completing trips at a higher rate than taxis, and taxis are still completing tens of
millions of trips in addition. Uber has brought for-hire transportation to people and communities who have
never had ready access to it before. San Franciscos transportation pie has never been larger.

13

UberIMPACT

trips in addition.
San Franciscos
transportation pie
has never been larger.

Creating Opportunity for

Well-Paying and Flexible Work

14

UberIMPACT

One of the strongest indications that the Uber platform provides a better economic opportunity for for-hire
drivers in San Francisco comes from a second 2013 report prepared on behalf of the SFMTA, which noted that

BY THE NUMBER S

taxi companies in San Francisco have had difficulty finding drivers for their shifts.11 Local drivers choose to
partner with Uber over other opportunities, like driving with taxi companies, because the platform provides
more opportunities to earn income in a flexible working environment, among other reasons. According to
a recent study jointly conducted by Alan Krueger, former Chairman of the Presidents Council of Economic
Advisors, and Jonathan Hall, Ubers Head of Policy Research, utilizing data provided by the survey experts at
Benenson Strategy Group, driver-partners reported that:

91%
The percentage of driver-partners
surveyed who cited earn[ing] more
income to better support myself or
my family as a major reason for

The most common reasons (combining major and minor reasons) [for joining the platform] were:

working with Uber.

to earn more income to better support myself or my family (91 percent); to be my own boss and
set my own schedule (87 percent); to have more flexibility in my schedule and balance my work
with my life and family (85 percent); to help maintain a steady income because other sources of
income are unstable/unpredictable (74 percent).12

87%
The percentage of driver-partners
surveyed who cited be[ing] my own
boss and set[ting] my own schedule

Uber driver-partners value the flexibility the platform provides

as a major reason for working

with Uber.

Ubers platform is available for use by driver-partners at any time, and any driver utilizing the Uber platform
can choose exactly when and where to drive. Because there is no daily or weekly lease fee and no other fixed
payment of any kind, Uber driver-partners have no incentive to drive any more or less than they prefer. As
noted above, driver-partners report that this flexibility is a major contributor to their well-being and a factor
in their decision to partner with Uber.
In contrast, the standard taxi lease in San Francisco is a fixed ten hours and costs $106.25 up front. A taxi

85%
The percentage of driver-partners
surveyed who cited hav[ing] more
flexibility in my schedule and
balanc[ing] my work with my life

driver who wanted to take an hour off to pick up a child from school during a shift would pay dearly for that

and family as a major reason for

opportunity, as fare intake would decline by 10% (about $30) while costs would decline only by a couple of

working with Uber.

dollars for less fuel consumed and fewer credit card transactions completed. The $106.25 gate fee is constant
regardless of how many hours a taxi driver drives. To take a starker example of the difference in flexibility
between driving with Uber and driving a taxi, consider a for-hire driver who would like to drive for two hours
in between non-driving obligations. Driving with Uber, the driver-partner could expect to earn $50 in revenue
net of Ubers fees (2 * $25/hour). Driving a taxi, the driver would expect to take in $60 (2 * $30/hour) in fares,
but owe $106.25 in gate fees resulting in a net loss of $46.25 for the day.
The Uber platform also provides benefits to driver-partners over driving a taxi that are more difficult to
quantify than earning power and flexibility of schedule. Many taxi drivers depend on attendants to provide
dispatching services and fuel. Some of these attendants have been known to demand costly side payments or
tips (as they are referred to by the attendants and dispatchers) in violation of regulations before performing
critical tasks:
Drivers, especially those without medallions, face a parallel problem. Those who take their taxi
on a daily shift basis (gas-and-gate), often find they have to tip the dispatcher, the gas attendant,
and/or the cashier. For some, not tipping has consequences in the form of delayed issue of the
vehicle, or perhaps no vehicle at all. The payment of such gratuities is forbidden by regulation,
but it happens anyways.13

15

UberIMPACT

74%
The percentage of driver-partners
surveyed who cited to help maintain
a steady income because other
sources of income are unstable/
unpredictableas a major reason
for working with Uber.

Driver-partners can earn more with Uber than driving taxis

The second 2013 SFMTA-commissioned report mentioned above contains enough information to generate a
reasonable estimate of the hourly earnings of taxi drivers. At the time of the report, taxi drivers in San Francisco
typically paid a $104 daily gate fee (since increased to $106.25) in order to drive, an amount equivalent to

$25
April 2015 average hourly income

35% of their daily fares.14 Total gross fares averaged roughly $300/day. 55% of that total is net to drivers, i.e.,

net of all of Ubers fees for driver-

$165.15 For a standard ten hour shift, the average taxi drivers hourly income net of vehicle expenses was

partners providing rides on uberX

approximately $16.50/hour (at the time this case study went to print it was not possible to verify whether or

and uberPOOL in San Francisco.

not the taxi driver income figures reported included tips).

While a driver-partners earnings on the Uber platform depend on many factors, such as when and where that
partner chooses to drive, Uber is able to produce a rough estimate of the average hourly net earnings (i.e., fares
net of Ubers fees) of driver-partners in the San Francisco Bay Area.16 Considering driver-partners who provide
rides on uberX and uberPOOL in San Francisco (which represents the vast majority of driver-partners), the
average hourly income net of all of Ubers fees in April 2015 was roughly $25/hour.17 The expenses of Uber
driver-partners would have to be greater than $8.50/hour, or 24% of fares, in order for taxi earnings to exceed
those of Uber driver-partners. As a basis of comparison, the report indicates that similar expenses for taxi
drivers total less than 13% of fares.18

16

UberIMPACT

A safe work environment

Because taxi riders are anonymous, taxi drivers have little recourse in the event that a rider behaves badly

The Uber platform

in a cab or fails to pay for a ride. In contrast, driver-partners on the Uber platform take on no payment risk.

provides access

Payment is cashless and handled through the app. Ubers technology can also identify and track riders who are
rude, disrespectful, or commit crimes against driver-partners.

to flexible earning
opportunities to

At the national level, taxi drivers are the most likely professionals to be the victim of a crime, according

everyone who qualifies,

to statistics from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2014.19 While we do not have

and many of Californias

comparable statistics for Uber driver-partners, non-anonymous riders, trip paths recorded during rides,
and electronic payments serve to protect driver-partners from many of the crimes that are perpetrated against
taxi drivers.
Perhaps the best, most direct evidence for the value derived by driver-partners from the Uber platform is the
breadth and depth of the population that engages with the platform to drive. Tens of thousands of partners are

residents are choosing

to partner with Uber
over other earning
opportunities.

actively engaged with Uber every month in San Francisco, and tens of thousands more use the app across the
state. The Uber platform provides access to flexible earning opportunities to everyone who qualifies, and many
of Californias residents are choosing to partner with Uber over other earning opportunities.

UBER PARTNERS HAIL FROM

ACROSS CALIFORNIA

This map shows census tracts in

California where Uber partners
are based.

TRACTS WITH PARTNERS

Data is from May 2015, and includes

only active partners.

17

UberIMPACT

Supporting a Safe and Sustainable City

18

UberIMPACT

Beyond improving transportation availability and affordability for individual riders and providing a desirable
platform for driver-partners, Uber has improved and will continue to improve the quality of life in the city of
San Francisco as a whole. Some of these second order benefits of Uber to the city of San Francisco include:

At the end of the night,

a reduction in the incidence of drunk driving, improved access to small and independent businesses, reduced

those leaving bars who

congestion and greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced need for the city to allocate valuable real estate to
parking under-used private cars.

otherwise might have

driven drunk now have
a reliable way to get

Helping to drive down DUI rates

home that does not

At the end of the night, those leaving bars who otherwise might have driven drunk now have a reliable way
to get home that does not endanger themselves or innocent bystanders. The number of Uber trips go up

endanger themselves
or innocent bystanders.

suddenly when bars close, providing strong circumstantial evidence that riders rely on Uber to get home from
establishments that serve alcohol:

SATURDAY NIGHT UBER REQUESTS

IN SAN FRANCISCO

LAST CALL

TRIPS

REQUESTS

6PM

8PM

10PM

MIDNIGHT

2AM

4AM

6AM

This evidence is supported by research conducted at Temple University by Professors Brad N. Greenwood and
Sunil Wattal.20 The researchers estimate that Ubers entrance into various markets in California over the course
of several years caused an approximate 5% drop in alcohol-related driving fatalities. The authors show that
the effect builds over time as the network matures. Similarly, a report on which MADD and Uber collaborated
estimated a 6.5% decrease in alcohol-related crashes for those under the age of 30 in California as a result of
Ubers entrance to the market.21

19

UberIMPACT

Providing greater access to small and independent businesses

Uber also provides riders a way to get to otherwise hard-to-reach local businesses. Independent businesses are
often outcompeted by large chains for prime real estate near high foot traffic areas and public transit, but Uber
offers an easy way to get to places near or far from the beaten path. Roughly 31% of trips on the Uber platform
in San Francisco begin or end at an independent business, and those trips are scattered across the city, often in
places that are not easily accessible by other means.

PEOPLE VISIT INDEPENDENT

BUSINESSES IN SAN FRANCISCO

Approximately 31% of Uber trips

in San Francisco start or end at an
independent business.

INDEPENDENT BUSINESS

Data is from April 2015, and matched

to local independent businesses using
the Yelp! and Foursquare APIs.

20

UberIMPACT

Reducing congestion on San Franciscos streets

Ubers business is still growing, and a number of benefits that the technology can offer have not yet been

Pooling rides in a

realized. uberPOOL is a relatively new product on the Uber platform that allows riders traveling along a similar

dense urban area could

route to share the cost of a ride. Pooled rides take up less road surface and require less fuel. Ubers network

reduce the number of

can support a high match rate in dense urban cores, like San Franciscos.22 By combining rides in real time,
uberPOOL has the potential to reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions without the costly addition of

cars on the road by as

a single road or the costly replacement or upgrade of a single vehicle. Already, nearly half of all uberX rides in

much as 30%, without

San Francisco are uberPOOL trips. A 2013 MIT study of New York City taxi data suggested that pooling rides in

inconveniencing riders

a dense urban area could reduce the number of cars on the road by as much as 30%, without inconveniencing

by more than a few

riders by more than a few minutes.

minutes.

23

As Ubers network grows, the utilization and potential impact of uberPOOL

grow as well.
For many San Francisco residents, using a combination of mass transit and Ubers various offeringse.g.,
uberPOOL to commute, uberXL to get to the airport, and UberBLACK for a date at a fine restaurantis now more
affordable, convenient, and pleasant than owning and driving a private car.

Ubers carpooling option, uberPOOL,

identifies riders headed along a shared
path and combines their rides in the
same car.

22

UberIMPACT

Lowering the demand for parking and freeing up valuable urban real estate
Whereas most personal cars spend approximately 95% of their time parked on valuable land, most vehicles
operating on the Uber platform spend hours on the road each day providing useful service and generating
income for driver-partners.24 As more riders shift to using platforms such as Uber for mobility, the citys tens
of millions of square feet of parking spaces can be freed up to be put to better use than storing unused cars.25
Land in San Francisco is valued at almost $1,000 per square foot.26 Even if the citys parking spaces were only
100 square feet each (theyre typically more than that), they would represent $44 billion in value that could be
put to use serving residents in more productive ways.

VALUABLE SPACE IS USED

FOR PARKING

San Francisco has approximately

442,000 publicly-available parking
spaces citywide, which includes
both on-street and off-street spaces.
275,000 are on-street spaces, and
166,500 are off-street.

PARKING GARAGES
STREET PARKING

Data is from all of 2014, from

SFpark.org.

24

UberIMPACT

Conclusion
In just five years, Uber has improved how both residents and tourists alike move around San Francisco, helping
to bring people, businesses, and neighborhoods closer together. Removing technological and practical barriers
that once stymied willing drivers from connecting with people who needed rides, Uber has had a significant
impact on the lives of riders, driver-partners, and the city as a whole. Riders finally have near-instant access
to rides throughout the entire city, at all times of day or night and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional taxi.
Driver-partners are earning additional income in a flexible setting, enabling them to balance other priorities in
their lives.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of Ubers impact is that the access, affordability, and opportunity benefits
set out above are just the start. In the coming months and years, Ubers impact will grow and evolve as its
technology improves and its network expands.
As more riders and more drivers start using the platform, the distance between any given rider and the nearest
available car will continue to shrink. Because Ubers real-time system is able to intelligently match each rider
with the closest driver-partner, wait times will drop even further. The result is a far more efficient use of a citys
vehicle fleet and roads. City planners and architects will be able to imagine and create more parks and bike
lanes, and fewer parking lots. As the platforms technology develops even further, ever-increasing economies
of scale will provide yet more advantages. Some of them, while difficult to imagine today, will be breathtaking
and transformative for residents, tourists, and employers, but fundamentally for the health and growth of the
city itself. The best is yet to come.

26

UberIMPACT

Notes
1

Hara Associates, Best Practices Studies of Taxi Regulation: Managing Taxi

19

Cindy Perman, The best (and worst) jobs for 2014, CNBC, April 19, 2014,
available at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101582641

Supply, 2013, pp 2-3, available at: https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/

Draft%20ManagingTaxi%20Supply%2045%20WEBversion04042043.pdf
20
2

Brad Greenwood and Sunil Wattal, Show Me the Way to Go Home: An Empirical

Hara Associates, Best Practices Studies of Taxi Regulation: Meter Rates & Gate

Investigation of Ride Sharing and Alcohol Related Motor Vehicle Homicide, Fox

Fees, 2013, pp 2-12, available at: https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/

School of Business Research Paper No. 15-054, 2015, available at: http://ssrn.

WebVersion%20MeterGate%2086%20FullDraft.pdf

com/abstract=2557612

Hara Associates, supra note 1, pp 2-8.

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Medallion Holders, available at:

21

MADD, New Report from MADD, Uber Reveals Ridesharing Services Important
Innovation to Reduce Drunk Driving, January 27, 2015, available at: http://www.
madd.org/media-center/press-releases/2015/new-report-from-madd-uber.html

http://www.sfmta.com/services/taxi-industry/medallions/medallion-holders
22
5

See the following MIT research for a proof-of-concept using publicly available

This is the median driver-partners number of completed trips per hour on uberX/

data from New York Citys yellow cabs: Paolo Santi et al. Taxi pooling in New

uberPOOL among driver-partners who drove for at least an hour per week

York City: a network-based approach to social sharing problems,

(though not each week) during the month of April 2015 in the San Francisco

2013, available at: http://senseable.mit.edu/papers/pdf/2013-Santi-Taxi

Bay Area.

Pooling.pdf

Hara Associates, supra note 2, pp 2-11.

23

Id.

Hara Associates, supra note 1, pp 2-3.

24

Paul Barter, Cars are parked 95% of the time. Lets check! Reinventing Parking,

Id.

We deduct Ubers $1 fee on uberTAXI rides before comparing taxi fares to uberX

February 22, 2013, available at: http://www.reinventingparking.org/2013/02/

10

Coastline, Streetsblog, May 22, 2014, available at: http://sf.streetsblog.

org/2014/05/22/census-sf-has-enough-public-parking-spaces-to-fill-cas-

price is roughly 39% cheaper than a San Francisco taxi.

coastline/

This calculation is estimated by dividing city-wide taxi revenue reported by

supra note 2.
11

Hara Associates, supra note 2, p i.

12

Jonathan Hall and Alan Krueger, An Analysis of the Labor Market for Ubers
Driver-Partners in the United States, Working Papers (Princeton University,
Industrial Relations Section), 2015, p 11, available at: http://arks.princeton.edu/
ark:/88435/dsp010z708z67d

13

Hara Associates, supra note 1, pp 2-8.

14

Hara Associates, supra note 2, pp 2-12.

15

The balance of the gate fee goes to fuel, phone, and credit card payment
processing costs.
This exercise is made complicated by the fact that different partners choose to
provide rides on different products (e.g., some partners have a high-capacity
vehicle that is cross-listed on uberX and uberPOOL, while another might have a
lower-capacity vehicle and, by chance, drive only in areas in which uberPOOL
is not available).
This is the median driver-partners hourly income for driver-partners on uberX/
uberPOOL who drove for at least an hour per week (though not each week)
during the month of April 2015 in San Francisco.

18

28

Aaron Bialick, Census: SF Has Enough Street Parking Spaces To Fill CAs

surge price into account for uberX trips. On average, uberX at the non-surged

on Meter Rates and Gate Fees. See https://flywheel.com/press; Hara Associates,

17

25

fares. The 30% less expensive than a taxi figure takes the average weighted

Flywheel by average trip fares in taxis calculated from the Hara Associates report

16

cars-are-parked-95-of-time-lets-check.html

Hara Associates, supra note 2, pp 2-12.

UberIMPACT

26

Trulia, San Francisco Market Trends, available at: http://www.trulia.com/

real_estate/SAN_FRANCISCO-California/market-trends/