Analysis of the Impact of Ride-Hailing Services on Motor Vehicles Crashes in Madrid

In most cities, discretionary passenger transport by car is predominantly supplied by taxi services. These services face competition from new digital platforms (UBER, Cabify, etc.) that connect users with the services offered by authorized drivers with a license for rented vehicles with drivers (VTC). However, very little is known about the impacts that these services produce in cities where they operate. So far, most studies on this issue have focused on cities of the United States of America, and they broadly found a positive impact in terms of road safety. Road safety has become one of the priority focuses for ensuring social welfare, to the point of being integrated into the Sustainable Development Goals as a primary value to achieve sustainable, safe and responsible mobility. Within this context, the objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of ride-hailing platforms on the frequency of traffic accidents with at least one fatally or seriously injured person in the municipality of Madrid from 2014 to 2018. To do this, a regression analysis has been carried out using a random effects negative binomial regression (RENB). The results of the model show that Uber and Cabify services are associated with a decrease in fatal and serious accidents in Madrid.