My plan with the News-Roundup posts is to share five stories relevant for my research and teaching. However, this is the ACSP conference week and a busy time for me. I am putting a cap on the number to three as a result. The stories I picked for this post are: A cap on ride-hailing in Toronto, zone-based tolling in New York City, and zero-emission and wheelchair accessible vehicles on ride-hailing apps.
Toronto to put a cap on ride-hail licenses: My city is capping vehicles on the the Uber and Lyft apps at current number (52,000) until the end of 2024. This was approved by majority council vote, supported by Mayor Olivia Chow. These are the pros and cons of the move by proponents (including some councillors, RideFairTO) and opponents (including Uber and Lyft).
Pros: improved quality, will increase driver wage by reducing competition, realistic solution to reduce greenhouse gas emission compared to expensive electric vehicles.
Cons: increase wait time and cost of rides, increased traffic activity in busy areas due to drivers seeking to work there
The story adds that New York City put a cap on the number of vehicles on the ride-hailing apps. But failed to mention that wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) were exempt from this cap. NYC used this as an opportunity to increase the number of WAVs on hailing apps. Toronto too can use the same strategy.
Zone-based congestion tolling in New York City and how the money raised will be used
Beginning in the spring in 2024, driver will pay $9 – $23 to enter the central business district in Manhattan if traveling in private car once a day while taxis and app-hailed services will be taxed per each trip. It is expected that this strategy will raise $15 billion for the city, which is planning to invest to upgrade its aging subway system and investing in clean energy technology for its buses. The story states that other cities (e.g. London), which institute such measures were able to reduce particulate matter. The story also mentions that the outcome may not be positive for those whose only means of transportation is driving. Well, yes, especially if they are low-income earners. I am curious to see how the city will solve this conundrum.
If you are interested in learning more about this more, watch a recording of the board meeting on the topic. You will see different payment scenarios for different types of vehicles and times of the day.
New rule in New York City to make vehicles on ride-hailing platform to be zero emission, wheelchair accessible by 2030. I found the story to be a bit confusing. According to this press release by the TLC, the rule is to make the city “to have a rideshare fleet that is entirely either zero-emissions or wheelchair accessible”. Zero-emission and wheelchair accessibility are not interchangeable. They are different but equally important. The story also goes into a great detail about how zero emission is to be achieved. But outside mentioning “accessibility” a few times, there is nothing on how the city intends to increase wheelchair accessibility in ridesharing at all. As someone who researches wheelchair accessibility in app-hailed transportation, I really want to know how. I am sure the thousands of New Yorkers who use wheelchair will do too!
Mahtot [Mah-tote] Gebresselassie, PhD 