The Uber Technologies Inc. car service application is demonstrated for a photograph on an Apple Inc. iPhone in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014. Photo by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images. If you’re in New York City, requesting an Uber pickup may get you there faster than dialing 911.
Need to get to the hospital? If you’re in New York City, requesting an Uber may prompt a faster pickup than dialing 911.
In New York City, where Uber’s black sedans already outnumber yellow taxis, wait times for the private car and rideshare service may outpace ambulance response times as much as three to one, a revelation first reported by Minqi Jiang on Medium.
In 2011, the median response time for an ambulance was approximately 6 minutes, 6 seconds, according to a 2013 report by the New York City Independent Budget Office. The median wait time for an Uber in 2014 was 2 minutes, 25 seconds in Manhattan or 3 minutes, 8 seconds in the outer boroughs, according to Newsweek.
And it’s not just in New York.
The rapidly growing yet embattled company, currently operating in 55 countries, also reports twice-as-fast pickup times than ambulances in London, which have a target of eight minutes, according to the London Ambulance Service.
That Uber’s wait time outperforms emergency response vehicles in various cities (which is not to suggest you call one in a medical emergency) is perhaps unsurprising, considering the pervasiveness of Uber cars and the speed of its mobile-driven geographic network compared to New York City’s intricate 911 system.
According to NYC’s 911 Performance Report: “Due to the complex and varied nature of the calls to the City’s 911 system, the process of responding to those emergencies involves seven different systems that work together to handle any type of incident that may occur.”
The post Uber now has a faster response time than ambulances in NYC appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
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