Ride-sourcing services such as Uber Technologies Inc. or Lyft Inc. discriminate against customers with African-American-sounding names, as well as female customers, according to a new study released Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The study produced some detailed data concerning how black customers were treated. The study, “Racial and Gender Discrimination in Transportation Network Companies,” points out that transport systems have historically been known to contain elements of discrimination. The study states that peer transportation companies have a chance to end such discrimination “or worsen it.”

Studying some 1,500 uses of the services in Seattle and Boston, researchers found a “pattern of discrimination.” In Seattle, the study said, African-American passengers might have to wait up to 35 percent longer for a ride than other passengers. “In Boston, we observed discrimination by Uber drivers via more frequent cancellations against passengers when they used African-American-sounding names,” says the report.

Across all trips, riders with African-American names were twice as likely to have a trip cancelled, while male passengers in low-density areas were more than three times as likely to have a trip cancelled if they used an African-American-sounding name over a white-sounding name. Women, too, were discriminated against, being taken on longer and more expensive trips in Boston, according to the report.

Moving along

Discrimination has for a long time been a problem of the transportation industry, with regular taxi drivers in the U.S. sometimes refusing to pick up passengers based on their race. Drivers have in the past suffered penalties when found to discriminate against black passengers. In their defense, some drivers say they don’t want to drive into certain neighborhoods, sometimes assuming before asking that some passengers will live in these neighborhoods.

In 2015 the issue of cabbie discrimination flared, people, and the media, asked if Uber or similar enterprises could be a solution. Uber customers have to create a profile, thereby opening up room for discrimination, though it seems a name alone may be enough to cause discrimination.

U.S. law professor Nancy Leong, who often writes about gender and race discrimination issues, said Uber’s ratings system has issues in that it allows for discrimination on grounds other than issues such as violence or abusive language. In terms of a name or profile being discriminated against, she said that with “a few modifications, the Uber app could come much closer to providing a race- and gender-neutral car service than traditional taxi services.”

In a blog post, Don MacKenzie, who is one of the study’s authors, did not blame the ride-sourcing companies themselves, rather he blamed the “decentralized decisions of individual drivers.” He added that while it’s impossible to say discrimination was the cause of something such as long waiting times or cancellations, certain patterns did emerge.

“We are not claiming that all TNC drivers discriminate,” said MacKenzie. “Although we can’t rule it out, our data could well have resulted from a subset of bad actors using the TNC platforms.”

Photo credit: Chrisena Allen via Flickr