Originally Posted by
themicah
In NYC you can't pickup for Uber/Lyft in a regular private car, only in a car with special TLC license plates. So it's possible that they're exempting cars with TLC plates from the per-day charge and only charging the per-ride fee that gets passed through to passengers.
Regardless, the idea is definitely to nudge the demand curve for FHV rides in the congestion zone--reducing demand from those who are price sensitive, and raising a little extra money for public transit from those who aren't as price sensitive.
I'm aware of the TLC plate requirement, but it seems a bit strange to me to charge per-trip as it doesn't manage congestion. One taxi (or Uber/Lyft) vehicle cruising around midtown doing 20-30 trips and never leaving is net-neutral wrt traffic, whereas if you had 20-30 cabs going interborough with a passenger, well, now you've just added 20-30 cabs to midtown congestion, and the net revenue from both examples is the same.