Poll finds some Uber, Lyft riders giving up their cars

A new survey finds that some drivers are giving up their cars and using ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber as their primary means of transportation.

Almost a quarter of Americans sold or traded in their cars over the last year, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Thursday. Nine percent of that group moved to ride-hailing apps as their primary means of transportation. And the poll found a similar number plan to do so in the next 12 months.

While the numbers don’t clearly indicate a trend, ride-hailing companies praised the poll.

{mosads}Lyft Director of Transportation Policy Emily Castor told Reuters the survey is early evidence that owning a car will no longer be a necessity.

“What we’ve seen anecdotally aligns with what you’ve found,” Uber Head of Transportation Policy and Research Andrew Salzberg added.

The survey found that overall 39 percent of Americans have used ride-hailing apps, with 27 percent doing so weekly.

Automakers are already bracing for the possibility that car ownership will decrease.

Ford is developing its own self-driving car and working on ride-hailing services. The company fired CEO Mark Fields on Monday and replaced him with Jim Hackett, the former head of their self-driving car division.

“[Ride-hailing and self-driving cars] are the factors that are driving our move into being both an auto and a mobility company,” Ford spokesman Alan Hall told Reuters.

Amid these changes, lawmakers are rethinking their approach to the car industry.

On Thursday morning, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Suzan Delbene (D-Wash.) introduced legislation that would fund the Department of Labor to experiment with different benefit models for contract workers in the gig economy.

Gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers often don’t have access to employer-provided healthcare and retirement plans.