> A 2019 study of 40 million Uber rides found that 16% of rides received tips
> Sixty-one percent [of US adults] said they [tipped] for taxi or ride-hailing services
hmm
> Sixty-one percent [of US adults] said they [tipped] for taxi or ride-hailing services
hmm
Whereas infrequent riders (say to and from the airport) are more likely to tip universally.
rides ≠ rideRs
If the group that does not tip takes significantly more rides than the group that does tip, then this makes sense. It also makes sense that people who use the service more might be less likely to want to pay more for each trip (tip on top of the ride cost), whereas people who almost never use the service might be inclined to tip each time.
Also, those statistics are comparing different things. One is about Uber, the other is about all taxis and ride-sharing services.
I tried to find out by following the links to the study but was unsuccessful.
Appears to also be US-only. I'm assuming the same connection that other replies are mentioning - that a non-tipping minority of the rider population represents a disproportionately large majority of rides. I only found it interesting because of how easy it is to broadcast either perspective depending on the response you want. Individuals and media reports can pick and choose between "a majority of people tip" and "less than 1/6th of rides are tipped" and be factually correct either way while giving off entirely different impressions.
[1] https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26380/w263...