On Twitter, Josh Gold, the senior director of public policy and communications at Uber, defended the note, said Uber was still a member of Congestion Pricing Now, and pointed out that the company could have specifically asked for FHVs to be exempt altogether, which is something the Citizens Budget Commission has floated. “This is a very knotty issue, but it is disappointing to see a putative supporter of congestion pricing seeming to help turn out the opposition,” Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director at Riders Alliance, told Streetsblog. All the scenarios! All the exemptions! Chart: MTA In other words, these issues are complicated and nuanced, not words that come to mind when reading this lobbying email from Uber, which is a member of the Congestion Pricing Now coalition. There are more FHVs than taxis, and all of their riders started paying a congestion surcharge in 2019 that nets the MTA nearly $400 million every year. Before the pandemic, FHVs and taxis accounted for half of the miles driven in Manhattan below 60th Street. Second, the conversation around FHVs and taxis and congestion pricing is complex. Other schemes the MTA put forward in its environmental assessment would charge FHVs between $9 and $19 for peak time travel. uYLi92YK2Nįirst, about those $23 dollar tolls: they would only apply to for-hire-vehicles in two of the MTA’s proposed congestion pricing scenarios during peak hours, and in both of those situations, the tolls on FHVs would be capped after they traveled to the congestion zone three times (Scenario E) or one time (Scenario F). Ugly to see lobbying against the Manhattan congestion charge with misleading information. The company has also been plastering its invoices with similar messaging. “Uber has been supportive of congestion pricing, but there is a better and fairer way to reduce congestion,” Uber says, sounding an awful lot like our friends from New Jersey who oppose any kind of toll that charges vehicles to enter the most densely populated place in North America. This week, Uber sent another pointed missive to its customers about congestion pricing, citing tolling proposals as high as $23, and playing up the unfairness of charging New Yorkers who live in “transit deserts” to commute into Manhattan below 60th Street while giving cars making trips within the zone a pass. Last week, the world’s largest ride-hailing company sent a notice to its New York City-area customers, asking them to “say no to increased fares” and suggested that congestion pricing might mean “you could pay more than $30-in just taxes and fees.” (The MTA has suggested no such $30 tolling scheme.) Uber, a company that ostensibly supports congestion pricing, sure has a funny way of showing it.
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