Rideshare apps have, in a decade, become the default solution for many city journeys. They are easier than figuring out a bus route, faster than walking, more reliable than waiting for a taxi. The convenience is real. So is the cost, both financial and environmental.
This article is the result of a self-imposed experiment: one week without using Uber, Lyft, Bolt, or any equivalent rideshare. Not as a permanent ban, just as an audit of what those services were actually doing for me, and what alternatives existed.
The starting point
Before the experiment, I tracked my rideshare use for a month. The picture was unflattering: 14 rides totalling £108. Average fare £7.70. Most rides were 1.5, 4 kilometres. Half were times when transit was available but felt inconvenient.
This matched the broader pattern most regular rideshare users follow: a small number of long, justified trips (airport runs, late-night journeys, occasional difficult routes) and a larger number of short, marginal trips that could have been transit, walks, or bike rides with a small amount of friction.
The experiment week
I kept a log of every journey I would have taken by rideshare, what I did instead, and how it went.
Monday. Meeting across town at 7 PM. Normal Uber price would be £12. Took the bus instead. Twenty minutes versus twelve. Arrived calm, having read for ten minutes. £2.20.
Tuesday. Working late. Would normally Uber home. Took the night bus. Twenty-five minutes versus fifteen. Felt slightly tired but fine. £2.20.
Wednesday. Lunch meeting 3 km away. Would normally walk-or-Uber depending on time pressure. Walked. Thirty-five minutes. Arrived clear-headed. Free.
Thursday. Grocery shopping, heavy bags, raining. Would normally Uber home. Bus took twenty minutes. The bags were fine. The rain was fine. £2.20.
Friday. Dinner across town, returning at midnight. Would normally Uber for £18. Took the night bus then a 15-minute walk. Total time forty-five minutes versus twenty. Some pondering whether the calculation was correct at 12:45 AM on an empty street. Fine, but more deliberate than I would have liked. £2.20.
Saturday. Furniture pickup from a second-hand seller. Would normally Uber van for £35. Used a local hourly van rental for £25 plus my own driving. Took ninety minutes total. £25.
Sunday. Brunch 4 km away. Cycled instead of Uber. Faster than Uber. Free.
The financial accounting
The week’s total transport spend: £36 (mostly the van rental on Saturday). The equivalent rideshare-default week would have cost roughly £85. Saving: £49.
Annualised, this is roughly £2,500 saved by avoiding the marginal rideshare trips. That is meaningful money, a long weekend abroad, a quality e-bike, several months of transit pass differential.
The time accounting
The week took roughly 90 minutes longer in total transport time than a rideshare-default week would have. About 13 minutes per day. This was almost entirely on trips where rideshare would have been significantly faster (the late-night journey, the rainy grocery run).
Most of this added time was usable, reading on the bus, thinking on the walk, mild exercise. Not all wasted minutes are equal. Some have value beyond pure transport.
The friction inventory
The week’s genuine friction points, in order of severity:
- The midnight bus from the Friday dinner was the only moment of actual discomfort. A late-night journey is genuinely better in a car, and that is the trip where rideshare earns its money.
- The rainy grocery run was tedious but not bad. The bags survived. The bus stop had a shelter.
- The Saturday furniture pickup required planning the van rental in advance. Less spontaneous than calling an Uber van.
- The Wednesday lunch walk was actively pleasant despite being slower.
Most of the “convenience” of rideshare turned out to be a perception rather than a substance. The real-world friction was much smaller than the imagined friction.
The carbon picture
A typical Uber ride emits around 200, 300 g of CO2 per kilometre (more than a private car because of the empty miles between fares). The week’s 14 normal rides would have produced roughly 8, 12 kg of CO2. The substituted transit, walking, and cycling produced under 1 kg.
Across a year, this is roughly 100 kg of CO2 saved, not huge, but meaningful, and approximately equivalent to a return flight from London to Paris.
Related: How to Cycle Safely in a City at Night
The behavioural shift
The interesting outcome of the experiment was not the week’s data but the months that followed. Once I had done a week without rideshare, the default flipped. Rideshare went from “first option” to “one of several options, chosen for specific reasons.” My monthly rideshare bill dropped by roughly 75 percent over the following six months and stayed there.
The specific situations where rideshare still earns its money: late at night when transit is sparse; with heavy or fragile cargo over distance; in driving rain when the bus route is awkward; for early-morning airport runs; for elderly relatives. These are real cases. They are not most of the cases for which I had been using the apps.
Related: Getting to the Airport Sustainably (and Affordably)
The honest case for rideshare
Rideshare is genuinely useful for the cases above. The mistake is treating it as a default rather than a specific tool. The cost is mostly financial (a habitual user spends £1,000, 2,500 per year on marginal trips that other modes would handle), with smaller carbon and lifestyle costs (sitting in cars rather than walking or reading).
The realistic recommendation is not to delete the app. It is to demote it. Use rideshare deliberately, for the trips that genuinely need it. Use transit, walking, and cycling for the trips that don’t. The financial and carbon savings compound. The behavioural shift is, after a few weeks, almost invisible, the marginal trips just stop happening.
Related: How to Map the Best Cycle Routes Through Your City
The commute at a glance
| Key point | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| The midnight bus from the Friday dinner was the only moment of actual discomfort | A late-night journey is genuinely better in a car, and that is the trip where rideshare earns its money. |
| The rainy grocery run was tedious but not bad | The bags survived. The bus stop had a shelter. |
| The Saturday furniture pickup required planning the van rental in advance | Less spontaneous than calling an Uber van. |
Why this matters beyond the household
It is easy to feel that individual sustainability is a small thing in a world of large emissions. The honest framing is that individual practice and structural change reinforce each other rather than competing. When you cycle to work, the count of cyclists in your neighbourhood goes up, which influences local council decisions about cycling infrastructure, which makes cycling easier for the next person who considers it. When you switch to a renewable energy tariff, the market for renewable generation grows, which lowers the cost of new installations and accelerates the energy transition.
These mechanisms are slow and partially invisible from inside any single household. They are also genuinely operative. The cities and countries that have moved fastest on climate are the ones where significant numbers of individuals made early shifts in behaviour, which gave political cover to elected officials who then enacted broader structural changes. Your individual choices are not the whole story, but they are the part of the story you actually control.
Sources and further reading
Frequently asked questions
Yes, by roughly 5, 10x in carbon per kilometre, because the rideshare car also drives empty between fares. The financial cost is also 3, 10x for a typical urban ride.
Probably not. The apps are useful for specific situations. The fix is to use them deliberately, not by default. Keep the app, demote it to "occasional tool" status.
In most major cities, yes. Stick to lit, busy stops. Sit near the driver. Trust your instincts. The actual incident rate on transit is significantly lower than the perceived rate.
Significantly better than solo Uber for both carbon and cost, but usually still worse than transit. Worth considering as a step down from solo rideshare while you build transit habits.
