Color-code our rides to fund MTA

The MTA needs a substantial amount of money to meet the needs of maintaining, improving and expanding our essential transit systems, and help maintain New York’s place as a world-class city.

The main approach taken recently is to institute some form of “congestion pricing,” a complicated proposition, charging vehicles for the use of Midtown streets. The fundamental question is “Who should pay what?” To answer the question we need to know who is using the streets plus a little bit of the history of how we got here.

Although a good percentage of Midtown traffic is personal cars (33%), a larger share (37%) is “For-Hire-Vehicles” (Ubers, Lyfts, etc.), while trucks and commercial vehicles are only 13% of the volume of vehicles, and yellow taxis just 14%.

As for the history, in the 1930s, the city created the medallion system, charging yellow cabs for the right to operate. A limit of 11,787 was placed on the number of cars in service. The purchase of a medallion was a “contract” that gave yellow cabs the exclusive right to spontaneous, hail service trips.

In the 1980s, the black car industry (Lincoln Town Cars) was created. The TLC failed to limit, regulate, or significantly charge these vehicles. The black cars served the upscale crowd through pre-arrangement while the yellows served street hails.

In 2013, green cabs (boro cabs) were created. They could pick up hails anywhere in the city except in Midtown Manhattan in an effort to provide quality, regulated service to the outer boroughs. Importantly, the Midtown limitation imposed on the green cabs reinforced the contract that the yellows had exclusive right to spontaneous hail pick-ups in Midtown.

In the 2000s, the city sold medallions to balance its budgets. It told investors the price of a medallion traditionally was a good investment. In their last sale, the city established an upset price of $750,000.

But later that decade, the appbased car service concept became a reality. The TLC wrongfully classified them as For-Hire-Vehicles like the black cars, rather than as a separate new category of cars. No limit and essentially no charge were placed on them. The city missed an opportunity to raise billions of dollars for the MTA, failed to limit their expansion, and practically destroyed the medallion system.

The FHV numbers exploded.

In the last 10 years, 100,000 of these vehicles have invaded our streets while paying a pittance, $275, while taxis had to buy a medallion (for up to $1 million) plus fees totaling about $15,000 per year. They now comprise the largest share of vehicles clogging Midtown.

The invasion of these vehicles led to nine medallion-owner suicides, hundreds of bankruptcies, and caused the destruction of the value of a medallion from the $1 million the city took from investors down to less than $100,000. This invasion created an unfair imbalance in the competition for spontaneous trips.

Yes, commuters cause a tremendous amount of congestion getting into and out of Manhattan during the rush hours, but midday congestion is greatly affected by this increase in FHVs.

To raise the money for the MTA, the first thing to do is charge the app-based FHVs what the yellows have had to pay. It could be done by charging the companies (not the drivers) an annual fee of, say $10,000-15,000 for a permit.

This permit could raise several hundred million dollars per year. To create this fee structure, the state should create a new category of car service, the gray car, and put all the non-yellow/green app-based services which charge a taxi-like fare into it. At the same time, create a true upscale limousine-type vehicle category (by type of luxury car) which would be black as long as they charge luxury rates, selling them a permit for $20,000.

Why gray? Two reasons. First, the public can’t distinguish the FHVs clogging our streets from personal cars. Yellows are obvious, but the FHVs look like regular cars. Make them stand out so everyone can see how prevalent they are. If not a color, paint on a stripe.

Second, white is for medical vehicles, red for fire, green for “boro” cabs, black for upscale luxury car service, and yellow is for cabs. Gray (or striped) is my suggestion for this new category of cars.

After these cars have been charged, then a reasonable congestion pricing program for everyone else could be implemented.