Please exempt rideshare drivers from the new congestion pricing toll. For-hire vehicle trips were already assigned a congestion tax of $2.75 per trip by the state legislature in the first phase of congestion pricing. Adding an additional congestion tax or toll as high as $23 per trip will cost thousands of low income, immigrant rideshare drivers their jobs AND it will put rideshare costs out of reach for hardworking New Yorkers who depend on Uber, Lyft and for-hire vehicles to get around.

There are more than 100,000 for-hire vehicle drivers serving New York City and if they are not exempted from this additional congestion tax, thousands could lose their livelihood.

Refusing to exempt rideshare would also hurt rideshare customers and disproportionately hurt New Yorkers in the outer boroughs and communities of color that rely on FHVs. In fact, the MTA’s tolling proposal would do nothing to reduce trips that start and end within Manhattan’s Central Business District. Instead the pain would be inflicted almost exclusively on outer borough New Yorkers. More than half a million New Yorkers rely on rideshare to move around the city each day and already pay higher taxes and fees on rideshare trips than anywhere else in the nation.

Rideshare drivers were hit hard by the pandemic, stuck with car payments and insurance bills they could no longer afford to pay. As business slowly began to return, drivers have struggled to make ends meet amid unprecedented gas prices and expenses.

Nine in ten rideshare drivers are unable to afford basic living expenses and more than half are struggling to afford food. Adding additional taxes on this already struggling workforce not only defies the legislature’s intent, it will also burden thousands of New York’s most vulnerable families.

While private and commercial vehicles have never paid congestion tax, rideshare trips have already been charged a congestion tax of $2.75 per trip in Manhattan below 96th Street since 2019. The FHV congestion tax has already raised approximately $1 billion for the MTA. That’s in addition to the 8.875% sales tax charged on New York City rideshare trips and the $2.50 per trip airport fee. New York’s Uber and Lyft drivers also pay more than $100 million in tolls each year and a hefty sales tax on record high gas prices.

Rideshare drivers and riders already contribute their fair share. New Yorkers cannot afford another tax on rideshare trips.