Do many lower-income people rely on ride-sharing services?
The users of ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft tend to be relatively affluent.
Gallup in 2018 found that one in three Americans reported using such services. Only 25% of people with incomes under $24,000 a year said they used ride sharing on a regular basis, compared with 41% of those earning more than $90,000. Globalwebindex, a market research company, reported in 2017 that 22% of users were in the bottom quarter of incomes.
A 2017 study looking at 4.1 million Uber users who took 59 million rides over a 7-month period concluded that the average Uber user is someone in his or her mid-20s with an above-average income. The study noted that "most riders have a very low activity, while a few riders are very active," suggesting that for most Uber serves a different need than everyday public transit or private commuting.
