Traffic Fiasco at Uber Employee Party Highlights Why Ride-Hailing Is Awful for Cities

The absurdity of the the ride-hailing model, in which everyone who possibly can takes a car to urban destinations, was laid bare during a disastrous Uber employee appreciation party Monday night at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry in the dense Hyde Park neighborhood. As reported by the Chicago Tribune's Alice Yin, the ride-hailing company hosted the shindig at 6:30 p.m.

John Morrison, who had been invited to the party by a friend who drives for Uber, said he saw got stuck in a massive traffic jam of cars with ride-hailing decals in east Hyde Park on his way to the event. A location where 57th Street and Cornell Drive merge was complete chaos, he said, because some drivers were going the wrong way and were facing other motorists bumper-to-bumper.

But, hey, encouraging people to take transit instead of cars wouldn't be in keeping with Uber's (completely unsustainable) business model, would it?