Why Your Uber Ride Can Cost as Much as a Plane Ticket

Beyond that, last February, a congestion surcharge imposed by the State of New York went into effect for Uber and Lyft (along with their competitors), which imposed an additional $2.75 fee for cars traversing Manhattan’s central business district. At the very same time, the city’s mandatory wage increase for drivers — which ensures a minimum hourly wage of $17.22, after expenses — also took hold.

These are essential, welcome developments. Most app-based drivers in New York City rely on Uber, Lyft and the other companies as their sole employers; they are not moonlighting to make extra money to fund their independent films. Congestion pricing in central Manhattan is long overdue.

But the wage increase, Mr. Parrott told me, has left Uber and Lyft paying a combined additional $50 million a month in driver pay. And then there is the cap on the number of new vehicles the city allows Uber and Lyft to operate, which was extended over the summer, a factor suppressing supply.

Although data for Uber and Lyft rides taken during the past few months is not yet available, Mr. Parrott said, from the numbers he has seen, fares started to escalate in May, and at the same time the use of Uber has slipped. Close to 556,000 Uber rides were taken in New York City in March. By October, that number had declined to 468,000.

Obviously, if Uber stops seeming like a reasonable alternative to yellow taxis, people will use it less. The real problem is that the rising cost ride-hailing services seems inclined to disproportionately affect passengers outside of central Manhattan, where 53 percent of rides taken in the city begin.

A 73-year-old woman in Canarsie should not have to confront a 100 percent spike in the price of her trip to the cardiologist, 15 minutes away in Brooklyn, because traffic is a mess on Madison Avenue.

And yet that, more or less, seems to be the kind of scenario that is playing out. Data from the Taxi and Limousine Commission looking at travel patterns from mid-2017 to June 2018indicate that pickups in certain parts of the Bronx and Upper Manhattan had doubled. Growth in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, where access to public transportation is less reliable and where median income is lower than it is on, say, the Upper West Side, was also high.

Source: The New York Times

Powered by NewsAPI.org

Keywords:

Uber (company) • Traffic congestion • Fee • Uber (company) • Lyft • Manhattan • Central business district • California County Routes in zone S • New York City • Uber (company) • Lyft • Employment • Congestion pricing • Midtown Manhattan • Uber (company) • Lyft • Vehicle • Lyft • Uber (company) • Lyft • Uber (company) • New York City • Uber (company) • Taxicab • Real-time ridesharing • Service (economics) • Midtown Manhattan • Canarsie, Brooklyn • Cardiology • Brooklyn • Madison Avenue • New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission • The Bronx • Upper Manhattan • Brooklyn • Queens • Public transport • Median strip • Upper West Side •