This November, San Franciscans will vote on Proposition D, a ballot measure that would tax rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber for rides – companies that one official says contribute to more than half of San Francisco’s traffic congestion.
In San Francisco, rideshare companies make 170,000 trips per day. City leaders hope those rides will soon mean more revenue for the city.
The proposed tax would be 3.25% for most rides, and 1.5% for carpool rides. So, for a non-carpool ride of $10, the tax would be about 32 cents, according to Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the proposition's author.
Both Uber and Lyft support the proposition. Uber released a written statement that said that the company is "pleased to reach an agreement that will bring dedicated transportation funding to San Francisco."
Peskin said the money from the tax will go back to the streets. Peskin said the tax, if the measure is passed, would generate a little more than $30 million per year and would be used for transportation and pedestrian safety improvements.
To get to the ballot, the California Legislature had to modify state law, so currently, San Francisco is the only city in the state that can put a rideshare tax on the ballot.
The pedestrian rights group Walk San Francisco said that if Prop D is passed, half the money will go to Muni and the other half will go to pedestrian safety projects.
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"Money like this is a great way to take back from the challenges that cars are causing and put it into the good of what we need to get people out of their cars," said Jodi Medeiros of Walk San Francisco.
Because Prop D is a dedicated tax and doesn’t go to the general fund, it requires two-thirds passage.
