If you use ride sharing firms like Uber to save money, a new study by AAA Texas will be bad news, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
AAA's Daniel Armbruster says AAA studied ride sharing services in dozens of cities, including Dallas and Austin, and in every city that was studied, Uber and Lyft are consistently twice as expensive as owning a car in those cities.
"Bottom line is, it is much more cost effective to own a vehicle versus using a ride hailing service," Armbruster said.
He says even though ride hailing customers have a tendency to live in central cities and urban areas where they are likely to drive far less than suburbanites, AAA says relying on ride-hailing services as a 'primary mode of transportation' would cost a person about $20,000 a year. The same person, even when factoring in costs like fuel, insurance, parking, and repairs, would spend about $9700.
In Austin and Dallas, the two Texas cities studied, the costs of using Uber as your primary means of transportation is less than the national average of about $20,000, in Austin its about $16,000, but in those cities the cost of owning a car is also cheaper, due largely to less expensive gasoline.
AAA says ride hailing services are a convenient option in certain situations, but people should not use ride hailing thinking it is cheaper than the routine costs of car ownership.