Uber saves lives by reducing alcohol related driving deaths, report says

It's no surprise to hear that Uber has saved many a stranded traveler from out-of-service subways, unexpected rainstorms and unreliable friends, but it seems that Uber may also be saving people from themselves.

A new study by Philadelphia's Temple University says that the introduction of UberX in 14 California counties may be responsible for a 3.6% to 5.6% decrease in alcohol-related driving deaths. Uber, along with acronym-loving Mothers Against Drunk Driving released its own study earlier this year,  but that one caught a bit of shade for not producing enough real proof. But this study from Temple seems to come with the goods. The researchers tracked data from the California Highway Patrol’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System from 2009 to 2014 and saw a correlation between the introduction of Uber in that area and reported alcohol related driving deaths. Brad Greenwood, an assistant professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business said:

“If there’s an overall drop off, we wouldn’t see an effect that’s just correlated with Uber. We’d just see the overall change in the trend, which would be completely uncorrelated with Uber’s entry.”

Well, that makes sense. But the recent Temple University study measured the decrease in deaths to the introduction of Uber in that specific area – that's how it came up with the 3.6% to 5.6%. It may be an unexpected but very welcomed effect of the booming new business model.