Citation

Mehranbod CA, Gobaud AN, Morrison CN. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2022; 232: e109321.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109321

PMID

35074695

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Ridesharing has changed urban transportation and the distribution of some health outcomes, including alcohol consumption. Studies relating ridesharing to crime and violence at low space-time resolution (e.g., county-months) find mixed results. The aim of this study was to examine whether ridesharing was associated with increased incidence of alcohol-related assaults within highly resolved space-time units.

METHODS: This spatial ecological case-crossover study used rideshare and taxi trip data from the New York City (NYC) Taxi and Limousine Commission for 2017-2018 and assault data from the NYC Police Department, aggregated within taxi zone-hours. Conditional logistic regression models estimated the odds of observing an assault for case taxi zone-hours in which an assault occurred compared to two control units of the same taxi zone-hour one week before (-168 h) and one week after (+168 h) relative to the number of rideshare trips. Separate analyses assessed assaults occurring at bars and restaurants.

RESULTS: From 2017-2018, there were 47,124 nighttime assaults in the 262 taxi zones. There were 2482 taxi zone-hours at a bar and 693 taxi zone-hours at a restaurant that contained at least one nighttime assault. Ridesharing was positively associated with nighttime assaults at bars (OR: 1.050; 95% CI: 1.002-1.100) but not at restaurants (OR: 1.049; 95% CI: 0.943-1.168).

CONCLUSIONS: Additional ridesharing trips are associated with increased incidence of assaults at on-premise alcohol outlets in NYC at the precise hour and taxi zone of trip origins.

Language: en

Keywords

Crime; Ridesharing; Assaults; Spatial epidemiology