Governor Baker wants to raise tens of millions of dollars for the MBTA by hitting transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft with a five-fold increase in the state-mandated fees they charge consumers.
Currently, the Commonwealth levies a fee of 20 cents on every ride provided by one of these companies.
Baker, in his proposed state budget for Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020-June 30, 2021), would hike that to one dollar per ride, with 70 cents going to the state and the remainder to the state's 351 cities and towns through local aid disbursements.
If the proposal, as is, gets through the legislature -- where members are already talking about a higher per-ride fee than a dollar -- Baker estimates it could generate $73 million next year for the MBTA and a variety of MassDOT projects.
Uber, Lyft, et al. are ride share market giants in Massachusetts. They're growing faster than hothouse marijuana: In FY 2019, they provided over 81 million rides here, 25% more than the previous year.
At a State House budget hearing this past Tuesday, Secretary of Administration and Finance Michael Heffernan said the total number of ride share bookings in the current fiscal year (2020) is projected to be around 98 million. That would work out to an average of 268,493 rides per day!
Given the contributions made unavoidably by network transportation fleets to Greater Boston's spirit-crushing traffic congestion and to the greenhouse gases polluting our air, it makes sense to impose higher per-ride state fees on them to improve public transit and thereby make it better and more rider-friendly.
Given the serious harms threatening our Commonwealth because of global warming, we might want to consider additional measures impacting this industry, such as no state fees if consumers book rides with electric vehicles in these networks.
There's a selfish reason I support taking one dollar (or more!) from Uber or Lyft for every provided ride, and I should come clean about it.
One, I don't want to die under the wheels of a hired car driven by a jumpy guy whose eyes are glued to the screen of the smart phone on his dashboard, and, two, I want some of the proceeds from this fee hike used to improve safety in the passenger drop-off and pick-up areas around MBTA stations.
Particularly, I have in mind the Washington Street side of Oak Grove Station in Malden, the northern terminus of the Orange Line, where my wife picks me up after work. It's become a jungle out there between 5:00 and 6:00 most nights.
Poor old Ralph Nader would keel over if he ever saw what defenseless pedestrians must confront nightly at Oak Grove: a unpredictable swarm of hired cars rushing to the station from all directions like nectar-crazed bees to a field of wildflowers. These drivers seem to specialize in stopping abruptly in crosswalks and walkways, blocking and sometimes even driving against the flow of cars exiting the station, backing up and pulling out without looking, and sometimes even live-parking amidst moving traffic, then stepping out and calling helplessly to the unknown persons who summoned them.
I don't think it would take much to improve situations like this at Oak Grove and other stations. Take a big chunk of the new transportation network vehicle fees and hire police details, local or MBTA police, it doesn't matter. Have those officers patrol on foot the pick-up/drop-off zones every other night at rush hour, with authority to issue $100-$300 citations to reckless drivers and/or drivers who create or exacerbate unsafe conditions, knowingly or not. Word would get around fast.
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