Uber will pay you $1,000 to ditch your car for five weeks

Traffic got you down? If the thought of locking your car keys successful a drawer and utilizing alternate means of proscription sounds intriguing, Uber has the situation for you. Today, the ridehailing institution announced the One Less Car trial, successful which 175 radical successful the US and Canada volition beryllium selected to ditch their cars for 5 weeks successful speech for currency and credits to beryllium enactment toward different question modes.

Call it a gimmick oregon a PR stunt, Uber says the purpose is to item the precocious costs of idiosyncratic car ownership, arsenic good arsenic each the outer effects connected our wellness and the cities wherever we live. Uber has agelong advocated for less cars connected the roadworthy — adjacent arsenic studies have shown that the app-based ridehailing manufacture has intensified postulation congestion successful cities.

The proceedings is modeled connected a akin experimentation conducted by Uber and the Behavioral Insights Team successful Australia successful 2023, successful which dozens of residents were challenged to springiness up their cars for 4 weeks.

Now, Uber is bringing its experimentation to North America. Car owners successful Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Miami, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver funny successful participating can sign up online for the five-week trial, which volition instrumentality spot July 22nd–August 25th. Uber volition past prime 30 radical from each metropolis to springiness up their cars during those 5 weeks.

Each subordinate volition person $1,000 — based connected the mean monthly outgo for conveyance ownership successful the US — to usage connected (what else) Uber rides, bike- and scooter-share, car rental and carshare, and nationalist transportation. Here’s however the stipend really breaks down:

Uber volition besides propulsion successful a one-month escaped Uber One membership, successful which subscribers tin gain 6 percent Uber Cash connected eligible rides and $0 transportation fees connected eligible food, groceries, and more.

There are a fewer requirements earlier signing up. You indispensable beryllium 18 oregon older, person a driver’s license, a conveyance that you usage much than 3 times per week, a slope card, and beryllium comfy documenting your experience. The archetypal week volition beryllium considered the “control period,” wherever each subordinate volition beryllium expected to papers their mobility habits.

“Many Uber riders archer america they privation to unrecorded a much car-light manner with a assortment of ways to ride, including nationalist transit, shared bikes and scooters, walking, and rideshare,” Adam Gromis, planetary caput of sustainability argumentation astatine Uber, said successful a statement. “This probe is captious to assistance america fig retired however to marque car-light surviving imaginable for much radical who privation to prevention money, emissions and clip successful traffic.”

Uber isn’t the archetypal institution to travel up with this thought for a car-free trial. It’s not adjacent the archetypal ridehail institution to effort it. In 2018, Lyft launched its “Ditch with Lyft” trial, successful which hundreds of participants successful dozens of cities were fixed $550 successful Lyft credits, bikeshare, and different tender to springiness up their cars for a month. The situation past morphed into an connection of escaped Lyft trips to radical who sold their cars connected Carvana.

Uber says it was inspired to tackle its ain proceedings aft seeing encouraging results successful Australia, successful which participants reported accrued walking, biking, and nationalist transit usage during the challenge. Uber concluded that radical request entree to astatine slightest 4 different modes of proscription successful bid to successfully ditch their cars. Still, fewer of the participants said they’d beryllium consenting to spell truthful acold arsenic to merchantability their cars and trust lone connected alternate modes — lone 3 of the 58 said they planned to bash this “in the adjacent future.”

It volition beryllium absorbing to way the effect to the situation successful these assorted cities, with assorted levels of transit, motorcycle infrastructure, and density, to spot however good Uber’s mentation astir idiosyncratic car ownership plays out. And it volition beryllium arsenic absorbing to spot if Uber takes immoderate lessons distant astir its ain contributions to car traffic.