Here’s what happened when these Toronto residents gave up their car

Did you know that Canada has one of the highest rates of personal car ownership globally, with more than 26 million private vehicles on the road? 

It’s also no secret that owning a car comes with hefty costs! Add health, environmental, and urban planning impacts to the mix, and it’s clear: it’s time to rethink our reliance on individual car ownership.

Recently, Uber launched its One Less Car Challenge to find out what would happen if ordinary people of all ages gave up their personal car for a while. The challenge saw 60 Toronto and Vancouver drivers volunteer, going without their cars for a month. Participants were given up to $1,300 to use alternative transportation options to get around instead.

The goal was to explore barriers, habits, and decision-making around car-light living. And the results are in! 

Here’s what they found.

3 in 4 participants would drive less in the future

After taking roughly two weeks to adjust to a car-light lifestyle, 76% of participants said they planned to drive less and use more public transit in the future.

Photo by Nathalia Segato

Participants’ use of public transit increased by a whopping 238% during the trial, as they used buses, trains, walking, carpooling, and ridesharing to get around. Urban participants, naturally, utilized public transit in their cities, while suburban residents leaned on carpooling. 

Big perks to going car-light

The benefits weren’t just about cutting costs or emissions. Participants reported a slew of unexpected positives, like avoiding traffic and not having to find parking, making new discoveries around their areas, and getting the chance to shop at more local businesses around their homes and workplaces. 

Many even saw improvements in physical and mental well-being, reporting that they had higher energy levels, felt more connected to people, and were socializing more.

Better access to multimodal transportation is the way forward

Uber’s One Less Car Challenge highlighted the need for better transportation options.

Investing in high-order public transit infrastructure will help more people get around easily, along with improving transportation connectivity in rural and suburban areas — these are often the places where people have no choice but to rely on car ownership.

Photo by Jason Ng

Equally important is integrating various transportation modes, such as bikes, scooters, rideshare, and carshare services to give people the most choice possible in terms of how they get around.

Uber’s mission

Uber is on a mission to help reimagine the way the world moves for the better – and that is with increasingly shared, electric, and, at times, car-free. 

By embracing alternative transport modes, we can move toward a smarter, more sustainable future for everyone.

Want to learn more? Check out the full results of the One Less Car Challenge and see how Uber is shaping the way the world moves for the better.