Explore this by taking our survey.
Few people in rural America use ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft. This is no surprise. How can we use a service that’s not available to us, right? But what if that changed? Would you use Uber if it were available in your hometown?
Just for fun, we created a survey to see if we (those in Legacy’s market area) are poised to bring Uber and/or Lyft to our place on the map any time soon.
Ride-hailing apps certainly aren’t on our map now. According to Pew Research, 19 percent of rural Americans use ride-hailing services, while 45 percent of urban residents use them. This adoption gap can be easily attributed to access. But why is there an access problem?
Why is there an access problem?
There are a couple of theories about this outlined in a recent Vox article. Some claim that ride-hailing apps aren’t available in rural areas because internet access is spotty and many people prefer paying cash to using credit/debit cards. Others claim the divide persists because ride-hailing companies go where profits can be maximized. In other words, there’s just not enough demand in rural markets to merit a supply of Uber drivers. Maybe the access problem is a combination of these things.
Let’s explore this in our anonymous survey. We’ll see how we measure up with the Pew results, and we’ll get a high level view of how prepared we are to embrace app-based transportation. Thanks for your help! I think this will be fun. Even better, it’ll make us more streetwise.
