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CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –

Uber and Lyft may soon increase fares 27 cents per ride if a newly proposed ride-sharing fee is approved in Cuyahoga County.

Supporters of the proposal said the goal is to give RTA the revenue those ride-sharing fees generate, which would be about $2 million per year.

Every weekday, more than 150,000 people use the Greater Cleveland RTA to get to where they’re going, but some people believe this year’s upcoming cuts and fare hikes will steer riders away.

“RTA is in a death spiral. The more service they cut, the more they increase fares, every time they increase fares they lose 10 percent ridership, so the solution can’t be just cut, cut, cut, we need to get creative and do something,” said Clevelanders for Public Transit Volunteer Coordinator Chris Stocking.

Clevelanders for Public Transit is the group that wants 27-cent ride-sharing fees tacked on to Uber and Lyft rides to raise money for RTA.

“We’ve been told that in order to prevent the fare hike we’d only need to find about $2 million per year, so we started getting creative and this looked like a good solution,” Stocking said.

The group recently proposed the idea to Cuyahoga County Council after watching Chicago pass similar legislation.

“If Cleveland wants to be a world class city, you have to have good public transportation,” Stocking said.

In a statement, RTA said:

“RTA is in favor of any ideas that will generate revenue. However, this is not a proposal that RTA can complete on its own. This type of proposal would need to be supported and approved by the Cuyahoga County Council, as it was approved and supported by the Chicago City Council in Illinois.”

Stocking said the group wants to meet with RTA, before things get any worse.

 

READ MORE: Cleveland19.com

Article Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News

First Picture Courtesy of Jeff Greenberg and Getty Images

Second Picture Courtesy of Smith Collection, Gado, and Getty Images

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