Beating The Dreaded Uber And Lyft Surcharges On New Year’s Eve In California
Mercury News reported recently on how all those who will be needing to grab a ride from such services as Uber and Lyft can avoid unwanted surcharges or spikes in price due to the holiday seasons, the next being of course New Year’s Eve. Since New Year’s Eve is generally not the best time for driving, companies such as Uber and Lyft are well aware that people will be looking to grab a safe ride home. Because of this influx of user requests, the companies account for the change by hiking up the cost with surcharges, in an effort to keep needs balanced for both drivers and riders.
Riders looking for an Uber or a Lyft should expect the services to be at their priciest for New Year’s Eve. How they can combat these surcharges could be done in a number of ways. According to Mercury News, those currently living in, or at least who will be celebrating and ringing in the new year in the Bay Area of California, can expect larger public transits to be fully operational into the early hours of New Year’s Day. These public transportations include the AC Transit, Caltrain, SamTrans and Muni, BART, and VTA. All of the public transits will be, of course, free.
Riders heading to East Bay can expect BART to stop along the Richmond and Antioch lines, so they will need to prepare to board the Montgomery station. Anyone looking to reach Dublin or Pleasanton and Warm Springs should be made aware that the trains will not stop at West Oakland. However, by downloading BART’s newest app service, riders can keep track of where the closest running train, including all routes, are to them. The app is available for both Androids and iPhones, and will in fact be updated in real time. The service will also help with direction for Muni, AC Transit, and other services as well.
Anyone who doesn’t want to have to spend the extra buck on an Uber or a Lyft can easily catch a ride aboard the public trains to get home or to another destination, thereby sparing their wallet from getting any lighter. This is especially true since the trains will all be free for use on New Year’s Eve. Can’t make it to a bus stop or a train station? The California Office of Traffic Safety has you covered, thanks to their offering of a $10 Lyft credit for all customer in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Diego through January of the new year.
