Ride-sharing passengers on Chicago’s North Side and in Hyde Park started paying more for Ubers and Lyfts on Tuesday.
The ride-sharing tax increase, called for in the city’s 2026 budget, expands Chicago’s downtown congestion zone.
The new, larger congestion zone is now generally bound by Foster Avenue, 31st Street, Western Avenue and the lakefront. A second, smaller congestion zone in Hyde Park is bound by Hyde Park Boulevard, 60th Street, Cottage Grove Avenue and the lakefront.
Riders that are picked up or dropped off within either zone between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. — any day of the week — will be charged an extra $1.50. Passengers taking shared rides will be charged an extra 60 cents and will only see that fee applied on weekdays.
McCormick Place and Navy Pier are excluded, though trips to or from those locations are already subject to a surcharge of $5 per ride, as are trips to and from the city’s airports.
The city’s downtown congestion fee for rideshares went into effect in 2020.
Last summer, Uber apologized after accidentally overcharging Chicago riders nearly $1.8 million in congestion fees, as first reported by Block Club Chicago. The company pinned the issue on a “technical misstep” and said it had refunded affected riders.
Chicago’s City Council relied on several other new tax and fee hikes to balance the budget this year.
Aldermen rocked City Hall convention by breaking from the budget proposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, singling out the mayor’s proposed corporate head tax as a key reason. Johnson and his City Council opponents both generally backed the congestion fee, though the mayor declined to sign off on the final budget, even as he promised to not veto it.
The city’s tax on plastic bags jumped from 10 cents to 15 cents at the start of the year. Starting in March, taxes on alcohol sold for off-site consumption, previously assessed by volume, will be set at 1.5% of purchase price.
Boat mooring and docking fees are jumping this year from 7% to 23.25%, with a new carveout for nonprofit corporations. The tax on personal property leases — touching everything from leased cloud computing software to cars — rose from 11% to 15%.
City Hall also imposed a new 10.25% tax on the revenue major sportsbooks make from bets placed within the city online and in person. Aldermen also broadly agreed to raise property taxes earmarked for Chicago Public Libraries by about $9 million to avert staff and security layoffs.