Technology

Ride-hail apps like Uber and Lyft generated 65 percent more rides than taxis did in New York in 2017

Ride-hail drivers now pick up more passengers in a month than taxi drivers ever have in a month.

Mar 15, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

Taxis and cars, shown from above, drive on a New York street.

Spencer Platt / Getty

Ride-hail apps officially became more popular than New York City’s iconic yellow cabs as of the beginning of 2017.

Ride hail apps first overtook taxis in February 2017 at more than 10 million rides a month but quickly grew to a little more than 15 million monthly rides by the end of 2017, according to new analysis of data from the Taxi and Limousine Commission from blogger Todd Schneider.

By December 2017, drivers using ride-hail apps — Uber, Lyft, Gett, Via and Juno — performed 65 percent more rides per month than taxi drivers did in New York City.

The rise of Uber, Lyft and their cohorts isn’t exactly surprising, but even with Uber’s slowing growth, ride-hail companies very quickly performed about five million more monthly pickups that taxi drivers did.

A chart titled NYC Monthly Taxi Pickups shows the taxi line declining and the ride-hailing app line ascending.

Todd Schneider

In spite of its slowing growth and a steep but short-lived drop-off after the #deleteUber campaign, Uber alone is making up the majority of monthly ride-hail rides.

Starting in November 2017, Uber drivers performed more monthly pick-ups than green and yellow taxi drivers. By December 2017, Uber surpassed 10 million rides a month in New York City. Lyft hit just over 2.5 million rides a month that same month.

Lyft saw the biggest increase in market share after the #deleteUber campaign in parts of Brooklyn, specifically Gowanus, Greenpoint and Prospect Heights. The company doubled their share from about 15 percent to 30 percent in those places.

It also appears ride-hail apps are filling some of the gaps in the outer boroughs of New York City such as Queens and Brooklyn — a value proposition both Uber and Lyft have often pitched. Uber and Lyft are each bigger than green and yellow cabs combined.

Uber performed a little more than five million rides a month in the outer boroughs as of December 2017 and Lyft performed approximately 1.5 million rides a month, while green and yellow taxis each fell far below the million-rides-a-month mark. Ride-hail apps altogether perform 10 times more rides in the outer boroughs than taxis do.

Even in Manhattan, where yellow cabs have historically reigned supreme, ride-hail apps were close to surpassing the taxi industry by the end of last year.