YipitData: average Uber and Lyft fares in the US hit a record high in April, as they drew ~20% fewer riders and 35% fewer trips in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2019
The companies are cutting costs, bringing back cheaper rides and looking for new ways to woo drivers
Context & Ripple Effects
The record April fares are the endpoint of a two-year repricing arc: YipitData's e-receipt data already showed US fares up 50% between January 2020 and July 2021 (e-receipt analysis of 1M+ consumers), and Uber and Lyft had publicly blamed driver shortages for higher prices and longer waits a year earlier. What is new is that demand has not come back — Q1 2022 ridership sits ~20% below and trips ~35% below pre-pandemic levels, so the companies are now cutting costs, reintroducing cheaper ride tiers, and courting drivers rather than simply passing costs to riders.
First-order effects
- Riders face the highest average fares on record while both platforms operate well below their 2019 trip volumes, forcing Uber and Lyft to reverse course and bring back cheaper ride options to rebuild demand.
Second-order effects
- Driver recruitment becomes the binding constraint: after years of taking a larger cut of each fare ([[a:945253|Jalopnik's analysis of 14,756 fares found driver pay was slashed beyond what the companies reported]]), the platforms must now find new ways to woo drivers back, which pressures the take-rate economics they had optimized.
Third-order effects
- If cheaper rides return without restoring driver supply, the platforms face a structural squeeze between rider price sensitivity and driver payout demands — a tension visible later in Lyft's widening losses when it reported a $422.2M net loss alongside only modest rider growth (Q3 2022 results) — pushing the industry toward cost discipline over growth-at-all-costs pricing.
The trend: Ride-hailing is exiting its post-pandemic surge-pricing phase as demand elasticity bites, forcing Uber and Lyft to trade take rates and margins for volume recovery.