Re: "said the biggest impact Uber was having is traffic congestion"
Introducing a forced 5 minute delay will increase the average trip time (though by less than 5 minutes). To achieve the same number of trips per day will thus require _more_ cars. This will increase the congestion.
In theory the Uber mechanism should decrease wait time, and thus average trip time (when calculated from customer starting to want to make the trip) compared to other mechanisms. Thus there should be a decrease in the number of cars required for a given number of trips. However, having a more efficient system increases the demand. For example, if the service time drops below the time taken to walk to the destination then more will take the service.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
