Your Uber ride is partly why Seattle traffic got so bad

Ninety-four million extra miles of driving.

A new study says that’s the amount of traffic that ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft added to Seattle streets in 2017.

The study is by Bruce Schaller, a former New York City transportation planner.

He says people using ride-shares added 5.7 billion of miles of driving in nine large, densely populated cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

In Seattle, he reports, people took 20 million ride-share trips in 2017.

And, he says, on 60 percent of these trips, people took ride-shares instead of using public transit, walking or riding a bike or not taking the trip at all.

Christina O’Claire at King County Metro says the transit agency will keep working with the rideshares, which she calls TNCs.

"The market is changing, the customer needs are changing, demographics are changing," she said. "We know there’s a need out there and it’s being met by some TNCs. How do we work together to understand that public transportation is the best use of the right of way?"

In response to Schaller's report, Uber said it supports congestion pricing in Seattle and elsewhere to help ease traffic.