I was mulling this announcement and article last night and I am relieved that drivers with riders in their vehicle will not pay the proposed congestion pricing of $19-$23 peak toll, which is proposed for once a day. That being said, I wholeheartedly agree with the Lyft statement: how does the rideshare company know whether or not you already paid your congestion pricing for the day and, more importantly, let’s say they do figure out a way to find out this information, do you now only match riders in the outer boros with drivers that already paid their daily congestion price so as to not charge the passenger? Does that mean drivers who didn’t pay their daily congestion price will be like the ugly red-headed stepchild and not get any rides because the rider would have to pay an extra $19-$23?

On a privacy level, do I want rideshare companies knowing my driving patterns by having access to information on my EZ-PASS account because if they need to know whether or not I was Manhattan, they will have that information. I see it as the start of an encroachment into information I may not want rideshare companies to have access to. If we start this process of giving out EZ-PASS information, what is to stop rideshare companies from knowing whether or not you were paid already to enter New Jersey, for example. If I was paid $20 bridge/tunnel toll by Uber to go from NYC to NJ and now (due to sharing of EZ-PASS information) Lyft knows they don’t have to pay me $20 to go back into NYC, but I need that $20 if only because the NJ rideshare rates are too low and it helps add to my earnings.