ZachGraves’s Comments

• Aug 12th, 2016 @ 1:11pm

  Re: Re: Logical Errors in Study

  on No, A New Study Does Not Say Uber Has No Effect On Drunk Driving
  It's going to be hard to figure out how strong the effect is without more granular internal data from Uber/Lyft.
• Aug 12th, 2016 @ 1:09pm

  Re: Logical Errors in Study

  on No, A New Study Does Not Say Uber Has No Effect On Drunk Driving
  "A can of wasp spray has no measurable effect on the mortality of wasps worldwide, but it has a substantial effect in my garage."
  
  This is a great line!
• Aug 10th, 2016 @ 7:41am

  Re: Driving drunk anyway

  on No, A New Study Does Not Say Uber Has No Effect On Drunk Driving
  "Is it that realistic to expect significant decreases in drunk driving rates across the board just through better availability of alternatives (like ridesharing)? There are two issues that I can think of in this regard."
  
  Outside of major cities, or college towns, probably not.
• Aug 10th, 2016 @ 7:36am

  Re: Re:

  on No, A New Study Does Not Say Uber Has No Effect On Drunk Driving
  Which raises a good point -- that Uber may never be availably in truly rural areas since it depends on a certain population density to be profitable (for both driver and service). Although autonomous vehicles may change that.
  
  It's also true that Uber/Lyft are better able to meet spikes in demand than taxis. They have a more flexible, largely part-time work force. Basically, surge pricing is a good thing.
• Aug 10th, 2016 @ 7:26am

  Re: Re: Re: A misquote of a misinterpretation of a non-study

  on No, A New Study Does Not Say Uber Has No Effect On Drunk Driving
  Eh, I probably set it up wrong.
• Aug 9th, 2016 @ 3:09pm

  Re:

  on No, A New Study Does Not Say Uber Has No Effect On Drunk Driving
  Again, it's not really important to the argument. But the passage is:
  
  "For the past few decades, we’ve been rigorously educated about the risks of driving under the influence of alcohol. A drunk driver is thirteen times more likely to cause an accident than a sober one. And yet a lot of people still drive drunk. In the United States, more than 30 percent of all fatal crashes involve at least one driver who has been drinking. During the late-night hours, when alcohol use is greatest, that proportion rises to nearly 60 percent. Overall, 1 of every 140 miles is driving drunk, or 21 billion miles each year.
  Why do so many people get behind the wheel after drinking? Maybe because—and this could be the most sobering statistic yet—drunk drivers are rarely caught. There is just one arrest for every 27,000 miles driven while drunk. That means you could expect to drive all the way across the country, and then back, and then back and forth three more times, chugging beers all the while, before you got pulled over. As with most bad behaviors, drunk driving could probably be wiped out entirely if a strong-enough incentive were instituted—random roadblocks, for instance, where drunk drivers are executed on the spot—but our society probably doesn’t have the appetite for that."
• Aug 9th, 2016 @ 2:10pm

  Re: A misquote of a misinterpretation of a non-study

  on No, A New Study Does Not Say Uber Has No Effect On Drunk Driving
  The "27,000" number is from pop-econ book "SuperFreakonomics" and based on NHTSA data. I don't see why it's "obviously bogus" but it's just an aside and not really important to my argument.