Uber and Lyft rides in New York City are down 15 percent over the past few months — while yellow taxi fares are up 5 percent, reversing a long-running trend.
New Yorkers took an average of 498,641 daily Uber/Lyft rides in June, but by September that number had dropped to 432,581, Commission on Taxi and Limousine data shows.
Meanwhile, yellow taxi trips increased from 94,130 per day in June to 98,724 during the same months.
New Yorkers once made about half a million taxi rides per day — until 2014, when Uber and Lyft began devouring taxi passengers.
Uber and Lyft executives have admitted that riders are facing higher prices and longer waiting times than they used to — at least in part because of a driver shortage.
On the other hand, yellow taxis are not subject to mercury “boom pricing”.
“Demand continues to outpace supply and prices and wait times remain above our comfort levels,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on the company’s latest earnings call in New York.
CFO Brian Roberts said Lyft is also facing a driver shortage, in its latest phone call — due in part to pandemic federal unemployment benefits.
“So far, riders have been relatively patient with less-than-ideal prices and service levels given they are facing across the industry,” he told Wall Street analysts.
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