Ridesharing and alcohol-related assaults in NYC: A spatial ecological case-crossover study

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.