Uber to get groceries: Are ride-hail services accessing Chicago’s food deserts?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Segregation has many negative consequences for marginalized populations, including increased poverty, low-quality housing, and decreased access to quality education, employment, and food stores. This study illuminates how food and transportation infrastructures exacerbate these inequalities and whether ride-hail services like Uber and Lyft help affected populations access food stores. As a descriptive understanding of the intersection between food, transportation, and racial and ethnic residential segregation in Chicago, Illinois, this study analyzes two questions: (1) how often are ride-hail trips crossing food desert census tract boundaries and (2) are ride-hail trips that access food deserts also accessing neighborhoods that contain supermarkets? Using spatial analyses of data from the city of Chicago, the American Community Survey, food store locations, and the USDA food access atlas, this study finds that ride-hail services are accessing food desert neighborhoods at a very low rate, and very few rides access food desert and supermarket-containing neighborhoods in the same trip.