Maybe Portland just prefers to stay at home.
The number of people hailing Uber, Lyft or taxis in Portland remains well below pre-pandemic levels — falling even more than public transit ridership has.
Taxi and rideshare activity has recovered from the lows seen during the depths of the pandemic recession. But only partially, another sign of how much the regional economy has changed since COVID-19.
Portland tallied about 8 million trips on rideshare services and taxis in the fiscal year ended June 30, down 37% from 2019, according to city data. The number of rides was essentially unchanged from the prior year. Ridership during the current fiscal year (which began in July) appears even slower.
The steep decline in Portland is a big contrast to what’s happening elsewhere. Worldwide, for example, Uber ridership was up 63% last year compared to 2019, according to the company’s financial reports. The ridesharing service says Portland is among the slowest cities anywhere it operates to recover from the pandemic.
What’s going on? The answer depends on who you ask.
“Lower taxi and rideshare figures are likely a result of much larger trends,” said Hannah Schafer, spokesperson for the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Oregon has one of the highest rates in the nation of people working at home, she notes. Business travel hasn’t bounced back from COVID-19. And TriMet ridership is also down by about a third.
The rideshare industry points in another direction to explain its local decline: City fees and rules.
“Compounding layers of regulation — local fees, rigid pay rules, and government insurance mandates — have pushed rideshare prices well above what they are in cities with comparable costs of living,” an Uber spokesperson said in a written statement.
Portland had been charging 65 cents per ride. This past July it increased that to $2 per ride to address the budget crunch in the city’s faltering transportation bureau. The rideshare companies say that’s the nation’s highest citywide fee. Portland International Airport levies an additional $4 per-ride fee.
Portland’s fees don’t just add to costs for riders, according to CJ Macklin, spokesperson for Lyft: “It also reduces overall ride volume, which directly translates to fewer earning opportunities for drivers.”
Portland does indeed have fewer rideshare and taxi drivers. There were about 12,600 at the end of last year, down by a third from 2019.
Fewer drivers may also be translating into longer waits for rides. City data shows waits were nearly 7 minutes last year, compared to less than 4 minutes in 2019.
Longer waits, fewer drivers and higher fees may all be contributing to the reasons the taxis and ridesharing services have become less popular in Portland.
Coupled with remote work, the metro area’s sluggish economy and the sleepy state of downtown Portland, it all suggests a long road back for the local ridesharing market.
Correction: The graph in this article initially misstated the decline in taxi and rideshare volume since the pandemic. It’s down by more than a third.
This is Oregon Insight, The Oregonian’s weekly look at the numbers behind the state’s economy. View past installments here.