Transportation
How Should Chicago Spend Its Uber Tax?
The Windy City will make ride-hailing services contribute funding for transit. Here’s how they could use the money.
Last month, researchers found the most compelling evidence yet that Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing services are worsening traffic and reducing transit ridership in cities across the U.S. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed a solution: slap those trips with a fee to fund public transport.
Just before Thanksgiving, the Chicago city council approved a 15-cent increase to the 52-cent fee that is already added to every ridesharing trip. The original per-trip fee initiated in 2015 was directed to the city’s general fund, but the new ride-hailing increase is the first of its kind to directly fund public transit.