Transportation options have recently evolved into the sharing economy; however, not all communities have access to these options due to multiple historical and contemporary barriers. Is the sharing economy inaccessible to low-income communities? In the context of major transportation, hospitality, and marketplace branches evolving due to new ventures, how will low-income communities adapt to changes in established public transportation modes?
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Uber on low-income communities. Specifically, the accessibility of services, or lack thereof, being provided to these communities and testing their feasibility as a mode of transportation in comparison with higher-income communities. Six randomly selected low-income and high-income census tracts will be used to explore the service coverage and accessibility of Uber. The data collected from low-income census tracts will be compared to those from high-income census tracts using a t-test and regressions to determine similarity or difference of service coverage between the tracts and the significance of different variables. Results are expected to display disparities between high-income and low-income census tracts. Low-income census tracts are predicted to have less service coverage and accessibility as determined by price and wait time.
