Uber and Lyft are popular with younger people, city dwellers, and college graduates, and a lot of mass media content is made by young college graduates living in cities. But as a whole, the American population is older and more suburban than it's ever been — so it should perhaps come as no surprise that the vast majority of people have never used a ride-hailing app.
Indeed, according to this great reality check from Pew, about twice as many people have never even heard of these services as have actually used one.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6510861/uber.png)
That doesn't mean they aren't worth covering. These companies get into regulatory battles with state and local governments that are newsworthy, and many of us think the ride-hailing model will eventually collide with autonomous vehicle technology in a way that could revolutionize transportation.
But for now, at least, what Uber and Lyft have done is revolutionize the urban taxi industry, which is a big deal in a handful of cities but pretty minor in terms of its impact on the lives of the vast majority of Americans.
