The findings stem from a research published on Monday from professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Washington.
The study, first reported on by Bloomberg, examined the racial and gender discrimination in ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft. It was based on nearly 1,500 rides taken in Seattle and Boston.
The authors controlled the routes and had research assistants use identical smartphones, mobile carriers and data plans to ensure no variances. Participants captured information such as trip request and accepted time, actual pickup and drop off times.
While Lyft displays a rider’s name and picture, Uber only shows the passenger’s name after a driver accepts a ride request. It doesn’t, however, show a rider’s photo or reveal the final destination until after the rider is picked up.
Uber drivers are, however, penalized for cancellations: Each city has a maximum cancellation rate based on average cancellations in the area.
“We went into this hoping that we wouldn’t see anything, but we found pretty strong evidence of discrimination,” study co-author Christopher Knittel, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, told CNNMoney.
Overall, black riders waited 30% longer overall for an UberX to arrive, the study showed. While the percentage is specific to Uber, Lyft drivers in Seattle were also slower to accept ride requests from African American males than white males.
Lyft drivers have information about a rider’s identity to assess upfront before accepting a ride. This suggests discrimination could be happening before they accept a ride.
“I have no reason to think Lyft drivers are different form Uber drivers,” said Knittel.
The study also revealed gender impacted travel times, too. According to the study, women were kept in the car longer — driven a distance of 5% more — than male passengers taking the same routes.
It’s unclear why female passengers were kept in cars for a longer time, but some factors could be for social reasons or to charge a higher fare, Knittel said.
The researchers cited anecdotal evidence: “The additional travel that female riders are exposed to appears to be a combination of profiteering and flirting to a captive audience,” the study said.