Yeah that was part of it, but the same study found a lot of it was due to circling blocks around already high traffic areas without passengers waiting for fares. In that case, that added traffic would be from people not using the service, but the service requiring a physical footprint in the city in the name of an empty uber vehicle anyway for it to function, if people were to use it.

You can argue buses and trains also need space, but you can fit way more people into a bus or a train before you need to make square footage available for a second bus or a train.