Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, fares for some New York City taxis and ride shares became more expensive.
New York rolled out its first phase of congestion pricing, a controversial new policy that taxes for-hire vehicles in order to fund the city’s mass transit system.
For now, Ubers, Lyfts and other car services driving south of 96th Street in Manhattan will see $2.75 surcharge and yellow cabs will cost an extra $2.50.
This will be a pricey change for customers.
This surcharge has also upset taxi drivers and medallion owners, who say it threatens their livelihood. They nicknamed congestion pricing the “suicide tax,” referring to the uptick of recent suicides committed by tax drivers facing financial troubles.
Drivers sued the state over the fee in 2018 and a temporary restraining order blocked the surcharge, but the order was recently lifted.
The State Supreme Court judge on Thursday also allowed the case to move forward by denying a motion from the state to dismiss the lawsuit.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called congestion pricing a “necessary” measure in order to provide funding for the city’s crumbling MTA. Albany estimated that the surcharge will produce around $400 million per year, a helpful measure considering that subway delays alone cost the MTA $1 million each day, according to Cuomo.
Ultimately, the state wants to implement congestion pricing for all motorists driving in New York City.
This is wonderful. Here’s what’s really happening: NYC subway is terrible and slow and becoming more and more overpriced and dysfunctional. Moreover, they now have to start making repairs and shutting down parts of lines in order to repair damage from hurricane sandy. Along comes uber and figures out how to make cab prices very cheap, so they are taking a lot of the former subway business. So instead of the MTA getting better and stepping up to the competition (which is the whole idea of capitalism, that competition breeds innovation and improvement and is overall better for everyone), the… Read more »
It’s time we stop the unlimited increases for the corrupt unionists, that are hired by the MTA to take permanent vacations. I have seen late (like around 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM how the union “workers” have 5 of them standing around doing nothing while another one, actually works on the tracks. After 10 minutes, he gets back on the platform and another jumps down and work for 10 minutes, then he gets up and a third one works on the track for 10 minutes. Thus out of every hour, every ‘worker’ gets a 50 minute break, and this is… Read more »
There goes my date plan for tonight
U mean everyone’s paychecks…
London has had the (city zone) congestion charge for (coming up to) 16 years!
Surprised NY took so long to cotton on to this money spinner.
This is part of the extreme left wing “progressive” conspiracy to drive the middle class out of the city, leaving us with only the welfare recipients.
Besides Rebbis paychecks…