By: Mario Mancini
The NYC Taxi and Limousine commission is the latest group of New Yorkers objecting to the controversial MTA congestion pricing plan, which is continuing to be a hot button issue.
The proposed Central Business District Tolling Program — aka congestion pricing — could tack up to $19 in new fees onto every metered cab trip south of 60th Street in Manhattan, under one of the seven possible scenarios for the system.
Taxi and Limousine Commission Chair David Do warned of the negative impact congestion pricing would have and a recent meeting,
“There is going to be a big impact,” he said. “Some studies have said there would be a decline in trips of more than 5%. This is a big concern.”
“As we struggle to get back on our feet, we face the very real threat of an additional congestion tax on our fares,” Independent Drivers Guild organizing director Aziz Bah testified Thursday. “While passengers may be charged the additional surcharges, it is the drivers who will ultimately pay in significantly fewer trips and lower compensation.”
“Our for-hire vehicles and taxis have paid almost $2 billion to the MTA in congestion charges,” Do told council members.
A panel known as the Traffic Mobility Review Board — whose members are appointed by the mayor and governor — will ultimately set the final toll amount, approve any exemptions and determine whether and how to charge for-hire drivers, NY Post pointed out.
The Citi. NYC reported:
The potential fees would be on top of an existing $2.50-a-trip congestion surcharge added in 2019 to all yellow taxi trips south of 96th Street in Manhattan, while $2.75 is tagged on to trips in green cab and for-hire vehicles. Those fees have generated more than $1 billion in three years, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Additionally, a 50-cent-per-ride MTA surcharge on all yellow and green cab hails has, since 2009, generated about $750 million for the transit agency through taxi trips, according to the TLC.
“The cab drivers are all hard-working people, but it’s getting harder and harder for them,” said Kaplan, who has been in the taxi business for more than half a century. “We are that old boxer that gets into the ring and keeps getting punched, punched, punched, punched and punched.”
In a statement, the MTA said its toll schemes that could put drivers out of work were among “different scenarios … modeled as part of the federal environmental review process, with different outcomes for taxi drivers and others.”
“If the program is approved by the Federal Highway Administration, the Traffic Mobility Review Board will review all available material to make recommendations on what the policy could be,” said MTA’s chief of external relations, John McCarthy.
“What’s beyond doubt is that an often-gridlocked Central Business District will have tens of thousands fewer vehicles every weekday, enabling dramatic air quality improvements and ensuring that ambulances, fire trucks, buses, e-commerce delivery vans and other vehicles necessary to our city’s viability can move around.”
TLC numbers show there were an average of 5,490 yellow taxis on the road daily in June — not even half of the 13,587 medallion vehicles in the city — each completing approximately 20 trips a day.
At the same time, there were an average of 49,341 high-volume for-hire vehicles — which include Uber and Lyft — which each did about 12 trips per day, The city.nyc pointed out
Congestion pricing will obviously not only effect the Yellow Taxi model, which is already a dying model, app based ride services like Uber and Lyft will be devastated and naturally regular drivers.
