News (10.01.20): Uber NYC Wage Experiment Worked According to Expert, NYC Traffic Roars Back, NYC Becomes First Big City in US to Reopen All Its Schools, New Jersey Gas Tax Increases
Select news headlines for Thursday, October 1st 2020.
An Uber Wage Experiment Worked (NY Times)
NY Times’ Shira Ovide writes that NYC rules passed two years ago establishing a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers are largely working as intended.
Michael Reich, a labor economist at the UC Berkeley, whose work was instrumental in the NYC regulatory changes analyzed data on about 500 million trips made in 2018 and 2019 that Uber, Lyft and others shared with the city.
Dr. Reich concluded drivers in NYC made more per hour and per trip on average, while people haven’t been significantly discouraged from riding on Uber or Lyft.
He did cite downsides of the rules, notably that there were fewer open positions for newcomers and not all drivers could work when they wanted.
NYC is unique vs. other cities in forcing Uber, Lyft and other rideshare apps to share detailed trip data.
Link to story
Traffic Roars Back, Reaching Pre-Pandemic Levels (Spectrum NY 1)
Traffic engineer Sam Schwartz, better known as Gridlock Sam, said car traffic is now 85% to 95% of pre-pandemic levels. Truck traffic is 100%+ pre-COVID levels.
Increase is unusual considering that only 15% of workers have returned to their Manhattan offices, according to Partnership for New York City.
Last week, an average of 243,000 vehicles drove into Manhattan each work day on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensborough bridges—a decline of only 6%, compared to the week before COVID restrictions began in March.
"The same thing happened in other parts of the world," MTA Chairman Pat Foye said. "Riders had a multitude of alternatives to commute into the central business districts, starting with Wuhan and other parts of both Asia and Europe. So it's not surprising."
"Obviously," he said. "There are limits to how many cars that MTA bridges and tunnels can accommodate."
The MTA chairman expects more people to ride the subway, buses and commuter rails, as New York reopens. He projected that the MTA would get back at least half of its lost transit riders sometime next year.
Link to story
New York Becomes First Big City in U.S. to Reopen All Its Schools (NY Times)
About half a million students, from 3-year-olds in pre-K programs to high school seniors, will have returned to school by next week. Roughly 480,000 children have opted to start the school year remote-only.
Mayor de Blasio has said he will require all students to take all their classes remotely if the seven-day rolling average reaches 3%.
Many experts predict that the city will be forced to close classrooms and perhaps entire schools this fall as children and teachers test positive. Schools will temporarily close if there are at least two confirmed cases in separate classrooms.
Link to story
NJ Gas Tax Hike of Nearly 10 Cents Per Gallon Goes Into Effect Thursday (NBC NY)
New Jersey's Department of the Treasury said a gas tax increase of 9.3 cents per gallon is due to "lower fuel consumption trends, due to COVID-19 pandemic”.
Tax on gasoline and diesel fuel increased on Oct. 1 from 30.9 cents to 40.2 cents for gasoline and from 34.9 cents to 44.2 cents for diesel fuel
Link to story
NYC Weather from The Weather Channel
AutoMarketplace NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace on YouTube ▶️