UBER GOOBERS
App protest puts city commuters in a jam
Hundreds of angry Uber and Lyft drivers created a rush-hour nightmare on two of the city’s busiest highways — the FDR and BQE — Tuesday to protest a new policy they say is taking money out of their pockets.
The hacks are furious that their bosses have enacted a measure that will deactivate their apps when demand is low — which the e-hail giants said was a response to TLC rules that penalize companies whose cars spend too much time cruising without passengers.
The first drivers, organized by the Independent Drivers Guild, gathered under the BQE at 6 a.m. and put protest signs on vehicles. The caravan departed at 8 a.m. and it took more than two excruciating hours for about 1,500 to cross the Brooklyn Bridge before snarling traffic on the FDR en route toward Gracie Mansion.
The original plan was for all cars to drive up the FDR straight to the mayoral residence, according to #DriversUnite co-founder Muneeb Rehman. But cops booted them from the highway at East 23rd Street and they used local roads the rest of the way.
De Blasio was home being briefed on a police-involved shooting on Staten Island when they arrived.
Drivers who could park got out and rallied outside Gracie Mansion, honking their horns and chanting. They then snaked through Manhattan streets to continue the protest at Uber’s headquarters near Hudson Yards.
The protest was considered legal and orderly by the NYPD — but that meant nothing to angry commuters stuck in the soup the drivers created.
“This Uber protest is f--king corny and messing up my commute. I miss black cabs,” @Mikey_TCF tweeted.
“Ticket all of them for unsafe driving and impeding traffic,” @iamavig wrote.
Twitter user @CathyG65 asked the MTA why her SIM6 bus “took nearly 3 hours to get from Staten Island to Madison Avenue & 41st St.”
“We went off route due to protests on the FDR,” she wrote.
Another upset user, @StefanieCarillo, tweeted about the protest while in an Uber.
“A protest means NOT GOING TO WORK,” she tweeted. “Not creating traffic. I’m in an #uber right now and this #uberprotest is dumb, unsafe and I’m glad the nypd are now getting involved. Not my fault ya’ll can’t organize enough to pull off a successful protest. FIGURE IT OUT.”