Uber in the ATL (Atlanta, Griffin: how much, buying, taxi cab)

[arjay57]

I've been trying to get a handle on how much people are using Uber.

Has anyone seen the numbers for our town or for a comparable city?

[Atlwarrior]

Not sure, but my friends who do Uber Select and XL not Uber X are sometimes making upward of 1k per week.

[primaltech]

I bet my roommate's probably taken over 100 Uber trips this year. She owns a car, doesn't like to drive it. And she's always doing stuff in the city, where it makes the most sense and is so much easier and less stressful to take Uber.

I personally am probably doing about 6 trips per month, or 3 round trips, as an average.

Let's say the average person in the metro is buying 2 Uber trips (one full round trip) every 4 months. (No idea if that's accurate). So that's 6 trips a year. Then if we have 6 million people, that's 36 million trips, or 18 million round trips.

Just a guess, probably a high estimate.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by primaltech

I bet my roommate's probably taken over 100 Uber trips this year. She owns a car, doesn't like to drive it. And she's always doing stuff in the city, where it makes the most sense and is so much easier and less stressful to take Uber.c

I personally am probably doing about 6 trips per month, or 3 round trips, as an average.

Let's say the average person in the metro is buying 2 Uber trips (one full round trip) every 4 months. (No idea if that's accurate). So that's 6 trips a year. Then if we have 6 million people, that's 36 million trips, or 18 million round trips.

Just a guess, probably a high estimate.

LOL ... the "average" person in a metro as CAR CENTRIC as Atlanta taking SIX ÃœBER trips per year? Yeah ... right ... whatever.

I'd estimate the number of Metro Atlantans who've ever in their lives taken a taxi cab ANYWHERE locally at maybe a few hundred thousand tops. Some areas of the suburbs (Fayette County, etc) don't even HAVE regular car services, or any need for something like über.

[TommyTipover]

LOL...Newsgirl, you must have missed the part about "Just a guess, probably a high estimate."

[ecuresident]

I live in Woodstock and I probably take uber at least once a month. Anytime I have family or friends visit from out of town instead of picking them up they now take uber also (at least 6 times a year). So maybe not the average person taking 6 trips a year, but I would bet at least 3. Uber is so cheap and easy to get I dont even consider driving while under the influence anymore and I am sure there are a lot of us younger people out on the suburbs doing the same thing.

[ATLondoner]

I've qualified for Uber VIP every month since June which means I've taken at least 10 trips in the preceding month.

I own a car but would never drink and drive so use Uber anytime we go out.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by TommyTipover

LOL...Newsgirl, you must have missed the part about "Just a guess, probably a high estimate."

[testa50]

I've often wondered this--how you can compare uber stats with other cities. The only website that seems dedicated to uber stats is this one, and it seems more focused on surge pricing rather than ride volume. The only indication we can get of Atlanta's relative popularity is that it joins Vegas as the only non-coastal city on the "popular" column right now (note the absence of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, etc). But that's pretty meager evidence.

Popular Uber Rates - Live

A few personal observations:

- Fayette, and most other suburbs, definitely DO have uber. Right now they're driving around and available for calling in most populated parts of the county.

To get an idea of the farthest out uber is available with more than just a single, one-off car (right now, Monday morning at 9:30AM):
- McDonough, but not Jackson or Griffin
- Newnan, but not Senoia
- Covington, but not Social Circle
- Loganville, but not Monroe
- Buford, but not Braselton

You get the picture. Generally anything considered a "suburb" of Atlanta is actually quite well served by uber (heck, maybe uber coverage is a decent indicator for the suburban/exurban divide). The area is about a 35 mile radius from downtown Atlanta.

Uber has taken the place of public transport for many working-class people who live in places that were poorly served by public transport in the first place. Check for a ride in places like Jonesboro and Morrow. Ubers are everywhere, and these aren't drunken 22 year olds they're driving around.

In light of this, the idea that uber makes 36 million trips per year (100,000 per day) isn't all that farfetched. It is perhaps high, but certainly 50,000 is completely plausible (1,000 ubers on the road at any given time making 2 trips per hour, 50 trips per day). In fact, looking at it that way it seems low. Intown ubers probably net more than 2 per hour, and they are ludicrously common these days--I don't call one until I get on the elevator, because there's generally one within about a block of my building. Maybe 1,000 ubers is a high estimate of activity, but it can't be THAT high.

[jsvh]

I just checked, I have done about 20 ride shares rides this month (15 Uber rides 1 Lyft ride, and at least 3 other Uber rides that someone else paid for). Mind you those are almost all on weekends as I still own a car (for now).

Last time I listed my extra room I had two applicants that take Uber as part of their regular commute. I have also talked with other passengers in an UberPool who have said they get to work via Uber.

I think a lot of people are starting to do the math and realize they can save money just doing an Uber commute:

https://medium.com/@kaleazy/a-financ...095#.31npzcqv6

The number of people doing that will only increases as prices continue to drop.

This is a very serious change to transportation that is already under way. And think the number of trips is probably much higher than people expect.