Lyft drivers study reveals racial profiling by law enforcement

A team of management researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has found that minority Lyft drivers in Florida are more likely to be stopped and ticketed for speeding and to be more highly fined than white drivers.

In their study published in the journal Science, the group analyzed data for more than 200,000 Lyft drivers working in Florida over the years 2017 to 2020.

Dean Knox and Jonathan Mummolo with the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Management and Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, respectively, have published a Perspective piece in the same journal, outlining the difficulty in finding suitable environments for conducting profiling studies in public settings and the results of the new effort.

For many decades, minority drivers in the U.S. have claimed that they are being pulled over for infractions, or even non-infractions, when white drivers are not as a result of racial profiling. Testing such claims has been difficult due to the isolated nature of police stops, though some have suggested that more diversity in the police force can lead to improved police-civilian interactions. In this new effort, the researchers used data from the ride-for-hire company Lyft.

The work involved analyzing data provided by Lyft that included GPS coordinates, maps, speed limits and other information to compare the speed a car was moving with speeding ticket information. The team was able to determine the race of the drivers by comparing their voter registration information and photographs of the drivers provided by Lyft.

The team then compared pullover rates and fine amounts between white drivers and minorities for all Lyft rides over the years 2017 to 2020 using a variety of techniques that involved factoring out vehicle color, make and model and geography issues.

They found that minority drivers were approximately 30% more likely to get ticketed under similar circumstances than white drivers. They also found that minority drivers received fines that were between 23% and 34% higher than for white drivers.

© 2025 Science X Network