I feel this is a completely misjudged solution. The reason so many people use Lyft & Uber is because of lack of public transport. This seems like city finding another way to tax people instead of helping its citizens.
Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
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Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#112> Uber and Lyft “are using public roads, and the profit is going to their companies,” Phil Washington, Metro’s chief executive, said at a recent meeting. Public roads are supposed to be paid for through fuel taxes, which every Uber and Lyft driver pays. California has gasoline taxes of: * 55.22c per gallon (second only to Pennsylvania) * 18.4c per gallon (federal) * 2.25% sales tax Additionally, taxing only rideshari…
Fuel tax revenue and other direct user fees like annual registration in California amount to less than 25% of what the state and its cities pay to maintain the roads and streets. Roads are massively subsidized from general revenues. If you are proposing a $5/gallon fuel tax then I completely agree. That would be about equivalent to what other rich countries tax motor fuel and consistent with the state's greenhouse ga…
If the usage fees aren't sufficient, then that's true for all drivers, whether it's Uber, or an eighteen wheeler, or a personal driver. If you get those usage fees right, then the argument that "specific group X profits from using public roads" goes away.
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#113I'm a LA resident. People in this city like to talk about congestion as though they see it as a problem, but they don't actually see it as a problem. Only people in the valley see it as a problem because there are limited choke points into and out of LA proper which keep people from getting to work. LA's limited transportation infrastructure prevents DTLA's homeless from getting to Beverly Hills, Long Beach's gang-re…
And to your point, they absolutely could solve the chokepoint issues with eminent domain, and adding additional arteries, but they choose not to. For people who think a congestion tax will improve traffic, it won't. Congestion taxes work if they can shift behaviors to alternate modes of transportation. If there aren't any alternatives, it's just a levy.
> and adding additional arteries
Time and time again cities learn this does nothing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#114NYC is doing this as well and it makes no sense to me. What is congestion? Is it “people who own cars getting stuck in traffic”? To me it seems like all this benefits is wealthy people who want to drive comfortably to/around their neighborhood.
Not only that, if you look at plates, a good portion of the cars around Manhattan besides taxis and hire cars (T-plates) have out-of-state plates. Why should residents pay hefty city/state taxes AND pay more to use the roads (through the new Uber/Lyft tax) so that there is less congestion for people who live out of state and drive in? What behavior is the city trying to incentivize?
This is fffing absurd. I am a hard core liberal but people on my side are not really smart when it comes to these types of decisions.
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
As others have mentioned, taxing efficient cars doesn't seem to make much sense. Maybe tax actual miles traveled instead? That would solve the problem of increasing efficiency and also decrease the value of loitering and cruising in-between pick-ups.
I'm real curious as to how taxing miles travelled would work, especially if you travel between states. Would you have to keep track of how many miles you drove in State A and State B, and how would you pay State B if you lived in State A? Since we'd need to replace the federal fuel tax as well, would the federal government require states to hold yearly odometer inspections, or would you have to fill out a form on you…
I'm real curious as to how taxing miles travelled would work, especially if you travel between states.
Trucks have been doing it for years with transponders in the cabs. That's how when a semi fills up with fuel in one state and ends its trip in another state the state in between still gets some fuel tax to pay for road maintenance.
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
If efficient cars are a problem, tax efficient cars, not Uber. But given CA's environmental goals, this would be counterproductive.
As others have mentioned, taxing efficient cars doesn't seem to make much sense. Maybe tax actual miles traveled instead? That would solve the problem of increasing efficiency and also decrease the value of loitering and cruising in-between pick-ups.
If you want usage fees to be proportionate, I think you'd need to tax according to the maintenance costs caused by the vehicle per mile (eighteen wheelers cause vastly more road wear than cars). That's really all you need, except perhaps for some fixed cost per mile for the size of the vehicle, to tax congestion.
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#117Why not just tax single riders, if congestion is the issue?
From the article:
> [San Francisco Supervisor Aaron] Peskin is drafting a measure for the November election that would levy a 3.25% fee on rides with one passenger, and a 1.5% fee on shared rides.
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#118Based on the comments here, it appears to me that many people don't understand the economy lose from the inefficiency of public transportation. 1 hour of bus transportation usually take only 20 minutes of taxi ride. It means I can save 40 minutes from the taxi ride. This 40 minutes have considerable value.
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#119I wonder if the proposed rule will contain provisions to keep Uber from taking the difference out of the drivers' pockets.
Re: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
If efficient cars are a problem, tax efficient cars, not Uber. But given CA's environmental goals, this would be counterproductive.
As others have mentioned, taxing efficient cars doesn't seem to make much sense. Maybe tax actual miles traveled instead? That would solve the problem of increasing efficiency and also decrease the value of loitering and cruising in-between pick-ups.
Wait, how would taxing miles traveled decrease the value of loitering between pick-ups?