With the arrival of New Year’s Eve, there will come the traditional throngs of people heading out to ring in 2020 at various crowded locales around the Bay Area. And as is the case with going out, after a long night of partying and celebrating, there is the matter of getting back home safely.
Since New Year’s Eve is synonymous for many with having a few drinks as part of the evening’s events, finding a safe mode of transportation is an important part of the festivities. Many partygoers will seek the ride-hailing services of Uber or Lyft for a ride. And as New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest nights of the year for those companies, riders are advised to plan ahead before they head out for the evening.
But if you want to schedule a ride ahead of time, you should expect to head out very early and maybe come home very late.
According to both Uber and Lyft, scheduled rides won’t be available for most of Tuesday evening and into early Wednesday morning. Trying to book a ride with Uber for any time after 5 p.m. Tuesday night will prompt a message that says “scheduling a ride is not possible from 5:00 p.m. on December 31st to 4:00 a.m. January 1st.” Uber said scheduling a ride in advance isn’t possible “due to heavy traffic and unpredictable arrival times.”
For Lyft, the window for arranging a ride in advance seemed to be open just a little more. An attempt on Tuesday morning to schedule a ride for the evening showed a period between 8:55 p.m. and 1:05 a.m. in which ride scheduling wouldn’t be available.
That means that for much of the evening, getting a ride will depend on just how busy the drivers are in a given area. Neither Uber nor Lyft gave any figures on how many rides they provided on New Year’s Eve 2018, nor about how many rides they expected to handle for New Year’s Eve 2019.
Both ride-hailing leaders anticipated high ride volume going into Wednesday morning, and with that there will come what is known as “surge pricing,” or higher fares, for rides.
“This heightened demand during this busy night may cause some areas to experience higher prices and wait times as we incentivize drivers to head to areas with increased demand,” Lyft said in a statement.
Lyft said that riders will be alerted about higher demand and prices when they request a ride tonight, and will be asked to confirm their acceptance of any higher fees before a ride request is finalized.
The situation will be similar with Uber, where the company said surge pricing levels will be determined by the supply of, and demand for rides in an area. Uber said it does expect ride demand to be higher particularly between 6 and 11 p.m., and then again from 12 to 4 a.m., and that riders should brace themselves for longer wait times and higher fares during those time periods.
Like Lyft, Uber will show riders what their extra fares will be and ask for a confirmation before completing a ride request.