Gov. Charlie Baker won praise from Democratic lawmakers for targeting ride-hailing companies as a source for new MBTA funding, but the idea riled the services themselves.
Uber and Lyft slammed Baker's plan to increase the per-trip fee on their platforms from 20 cents to $1 as a misfire that will pose an undue strain on their customers and on drivers contracted by the companies.
"Lyft shares the goal of improving public transit in Massachusetts, but a five-times increase on rideshare fees will not solve the transportation challenges in the state, and will hurt those who can least afford it," Lyft spokeswoman Campbell Matthews said in a statement.
In his fiscal year 2021 budget legislation unveiled Wednesday, Baker called for quintupling the fee the state imposes on all trips made on transportation network companies, often referred to as TNCs.
The bill would change how revenue from the fee is dispersed, directing 70 percent to the state and 30 percent to municipalities rather than the current 50-50 split. Baker projected the changes will generate another $100 million in revenue for the state, much of which would be directed toward expanding the MBTA's operating budget.
"As recently as five years ago, the number of TNC rides in Massachusetts was — I wouldn't call it negligible, but it was a few million. We're now talking about 100 million annually," Baker said at a Wednesday press conference. He added, "You're talking about wear and tear on our roads and bridges that needs to be supported through some other mechanism."
Baker also wants the state to collect more detailed data on when and where trips take place and to impose new safety requirements on drivers. In his State of the Commonwealth address on Tuesday, the governor said ride-hailing services "clog our roads and operate with very little oversight."
Both Uber and Lyft, the two major TNCs operating in Massachusetts, argued in the wake of the governor's proposal that the services have been unfairly targeted as a way to generate revenue and reduce congestion. They said data shows that single-passenger vehicles operated by individual motorists, not ride-for-hire vehicles, contribute the most to traffic.
"We share the state's goals of reducing congestion and investing in mass transit, but we have concerns with any proposal that would result in a substantial tax increase for riders," Uber spokesman Harry Hartfield said in a statement. "While the state's own congestion report said that ridesharing accounts for only four percent of vehicle traffic, ridesharing must be part of the solution - recently, we’ve worked with Mayor Walsh to launch dedicated pick up/drop off zones, rolled out transit planning in our app and supported fully funding mass transit."
Lyft also argued that the higher fee would disproportionately harm commuters who have limited transit options, noting that 55 percent of rides begin or end in low-income areas.
The two companies expressed support instead for congestion pricing systems, where road tolls would vary in an attempt to incentivize off-peak travel, because they would apply to all drivers and would not single out TNCs.
Baker is not alone at the State House in calling for new costs on ride-for-hire services. House Democratic leaders appear poised to include a fee increase in their forthcoming transportation revenue package, and other lawmakers have been pushing since the start of the session to change the fee structure.
The current fee structure was laid out in a 2016 state law regulating the ride-for-hire industry.
A handful of bills would impose a fee of 6.25 percent on a TNC ride with a single passenger and either 3 percent or 4.25 percent for shared trips, a difference supporters say can incentivize using the carpool option.
But one bill author, East Boston Rep. Adrian Madaro, said he was "elated" to hear the governor pushing to increase the fees even though Baker's proposal would still retain a flat charge regardless of trip distance.
A percentage-based model would be more "equitable," Madaro said, but he believes Baker's proposal is worth supporting.
"The governor is taking a more high-level approach at this thing," Madaro told the News Service. "From my standpoint, I'm just glad we're going to have this conversation."
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council have expressed support for a percentage-based fee, which would charge passengers more for longer trips, rather than a simple increase to the flat fee.
During a live radio appearance on WGBH Thursday, an Uber and Lyft driver from Boston called in and asked Baker if he had any plans to add safeguards to protect drivers. Price increases, the caller said, "just end up hurting the driver."
Baker replied that it was "a great question," but that he believes a price increase is necessary to address roadway frustrations.
"We would also like some information from the Legislature on when and where people pick up and drop off so that if there are certain areas, and I believe there will be, where a lot of the congestion gets created by these delivery services, we can create curb cuts or drop-off and pick-up places," Baker said. "But the double and triple parking in the middle of rush hour, in the morning and in the evening, we've got to come up with some answers for that that are better than what we have now, and we can use some of the money associated with that fee to pay for it."
