Drivers from popular ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft have engaged in a ?pattern of discrimination? that limits transportation options for African American passengers and ratchets up costs for female passengers, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Washington and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had several research assistants take nearly 1500 trips in their respective markets on Uber, Lyft, and Flywheel. They say drivers canceled on riders with African American?sounding names more than twice as often as they canceled on those with white-sounding names. Male passengers in certain areas were more than three times as likely to have their trips canceled when they used names like Darnell, Kareem, and Rasheed, versus Brad, Greg, and Todd. ?There appears to be evidence that African American passengers receive worse service compared to white riders,? the study?s authors wrote in the paper, ?Racial and Gender Discrimination in Transportation Network Companies.? The authors were careful to note that the discrimination was not the result of any policy enforced by the ride-hailing providers, but the behavior of individual drivers.

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?When we see many such decisions disproportionately affecting certain groups, that points to discrimination in the aggregate.? ? Don MacKenzie, University of Washington

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Some findings varied by market. In Seattle, African American passengers suffered through wait times as much as 35 percent longer than white...