Field Work Brief · Ride-Hail Pricing · Northern Virginia and Washington

The Algorithmic Fare

Lyft fares around Annandale, Fairfax, Arlington and Washington from 2 October to 31 December 2024, set beside the bus and train running at the same hour

Lyft prices every ride with an algorithm the rider never sees. Since 2016 the surge charge has been folded into the base fare line on the receipt, and Lyft’s own help pages say demand, traffic and driver availability all move the price, along with the fee for a missed pickup. Around Washington between October and December 2024, the same trip between Annandale and Fairfax, about 9 to 10 miles, cost anywhere from $14.99 to $34.58, and the steepest markup over Lyft’s own posted rate card, 2.14 times, came at 1:31 AM, when no bus or train was running. In October 2024 the FTC and the Justice Department fined Lyft $2,100,000 for misleading drivers about what they would earn; that July Sen. Sherrod Brown had asked its chief executive whether Lyft consistently charges higher prices to more willing consumers.

The routes trace an ordinary autumn in Northern Virginia and Washington: Annandale to Braddock Road and Main Street in Fairfax, Tysons, Seven Corners and Lincolnia, across the river to Rosslyn and into the city, and home again late at night. The heavier the line, the more often the trip was made, and its color shows how far the usual fare on that line sat from Lyft’s own posted card for the same miles and minutes.

Positions are approximate. A loop marks rides that started and ended in the same area.

The multiple divides each fare, less DC taxes and the service fee, by what Lyft’s posted card charges for the same miles and minutes. Dark shading: Metrorail closed every night, 1 to 5 AM. Light shading: closed on some nights, midnight to 1 AM and 5 to 7 AM.

Each row is one pair of places. The line runs from the cheapest fare to the dearest; each mark is one ride, shaped and colored by whether transit was running at pickup.

Transit fares are the high end for the hour of each ride: Metrobus and Fairfax Connector $2.25, the CUE free, Metrorail after the $2.25 bus-to-rail credit. Transit minutes are door-to-door estimates and include a walk at the home end.

The autumn laid out by date and hour of pickup, beside the moments the cases in the ABCs of Corruption were taken up in ChatGPT conversations. Each yellow marker carries its ledger letter and opens the case.

Times are Eastern. Data file: fwb-01-lyft-records-2024-10-02-to-2024-12-31.json

Choose a receipt from the list, or tap any mark in the charts above.
FWBAll Field Work BriefsSADHOTAll explainersThe ABCs of CorruptionLedger E · The Customer