Uber may be saving lives

On ride-hailing apps, impaired drivers, and where saved lives are coming from

University of California researchers looking into the nature of ride-sharing say, “Our results imply that ridesharing has decreased U.S. traffic fatalities by 5.2% in areas where it operates.” If true, that would be a big and highly commendable effect.

■ Technology is often marveled-at because of big things it makes possible. But it’s perhaps equally exciting to see the things that don’t happen because technology was doing its work.

■ An intervention that eliminated one of every 20 deaths would be hailed as a significant breakthrough. Here, though, what matters is what didn’t happen. Intuitively, it makes sense that if fewer impaired drivers chose to drive and instead chose to take a ride-share, the net total of deaths might fall.

■ But what seems a little remarkable about the ride-share story is that it’s hardly new technology; people have been hailing cabs and splitting rides for a long time. What apps like Uber did was remove the obstacles to those requests. It’s a lesson well worth understanding: Sometimes all that’s needed is to remove the impediments to getting a job done.