A fee alone won’t curb uber

Gov. Cuomo is expected to lay out his congestion pricing plan in next week’s State of the State speech, aimed at raising urgently needed funds for mass transit and reversing the 23% decline in Manhattan traffic speeds since 2010.

Cuomo may propose a charge on motorists driving into the Manhattan business district, the area south of 60th St., similar to London’s scheme implemented in 2003, to both raise revenue and cut down on congestion. Or he might look for revenue to revive the subway first and put off a motorist fee until 2019 or later.

Whichever path he chooses, no anticongestion plan will be successful unless it deals head-on with the proliferation of ondemand ride services like Uber and Lyft.

These ride services did not exist a decade ago, but my research shows that combined with yellow cabs they now make up 50% to 75% of traffic in Manhattan. Over 10,000 Ubers, Lyfts and yellow cabs roam Manhattan central business district streets between 4 and 6 p.m., double the number just four years ago. Their rapid growth is a big part of plummeting Midtown Manhattan traffic speeds, now averaging 5 mph during the day.

Cuomo seems likely to propose a surcharge on Uber, Lyft and yellow cab trips. A surcharge can raise money for the subway but is unlikely to have much effect on traffic. Manhattanites taking Uber and Lyft are simply not very sensitive to price; fewer than 10% opt for UberPool or Lyftline, which offer reduced fares for riding with strangers headed in the same direction.

To reduce congestion, Cuomo should look at all the time these vehicles are vacant between dropping off passengers and waiting for their next fare.

My analysis of Taxi and Limousine Commission trip data, as detailed in the report “Empty Seats, Full Streets: Fixing Manhattan’s Traffic Problem,” shows that this vacant time presents a big opportunity. Uber and Lyft drivers spend 40% of their time in the central business district vacant, between fare-paying trips. Cutting down on vacant time could pay big dividends for solving the Manhattan traffic problem.

It could shrink the number of Uber, Lyft and yellow cab drivers in the district by 12% while still leaving enough drivers available to quickly pick up the next customers requesting a trip. That would produce a 7% reduction in overall traffic and likely similar improvement in traffic speeds.

There is a simple way to get this done. There are an excessive number of vacant Ubers and Lyfts in Manhattan because drivers choose to head back to central Manhattan without a passenger after completing a trip in upper Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens. These drivers could easily be discouraged from returning vacant if Uber and Lyft channeled passenger trip requests to drivers who were already in the central business district after dropping off a fare.

Uber and Lyft already do something similar at airports across the country, offering trips to drivers who just let out their passengers at an airport terminal rather than making them go to the remote driver waiting area before being dispatched. Similarly for yellow cabs, regulations could be adopted to limit the number of taxis in central Manhattan during the business day, just as there are overall limits on the number of medallion licenses.

This solution would be good for everyone. With fewer vehicles in the central business district, Uber, Lyft and yellow cab passengers as well as other motorists would get to their destinations more quickly. With shorter waits between trips, drivers would make more money. Buses would move faster, hopefully reversing four years of falling ridership on routes that are increasingly clogged in traffic. Shoppers would save money since congestion drives up the cost of deliveries to retail stores.

Mandating that Uber, Lyft and yellow cabs spend less vacant time in Manhattan’s central business district should be combined with a trip surcharge to raise money for the MTA — by my estimate, about $475 million a year for a $3 surcharge on trips in Manhattan up to E. 96th and W. 110th Sts.

These should be combined with a fee on motorists using East River bridges and crossing 60th St. This package would raise $1.5 to $2 billion annually for mass transit and other transportation needs and come close to reversing the 23% reduction in Manhattan traffic speeds.

Our transit system’s current problems and the proliferation of Uber and Lyft in Manhattan have fed a cycle of increasing congestion and declining transit use over the last several years. Now is the time to fix both.

Fortunately, we know how to do so. Now we need the leadership to get it done. Gov. Cuomo should start us down that road next week.