Manhattan south of 60th Street is a tolled congestion relief zone. For-hire vehicles pay a per-trip surcharge on any ride that enters it which is most rides to a Midtown hotel or a downtown office

• It is included. The surcharge sits inside your flat rate. No line item appears afterwards, and no chauffeur asks you for it in the car.
• The zone is south of 60th Street. Everything from 60th down to the Battery, on both the East and West sides.
• Three roads are excluded. The FDR Drive, the West Side Highway and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connection through Battery Park Underpass do not trigger the toll if you stay on them.
• We route around it where it helps. If your trip can use an excluded corridor without costing you time, it does. If it cannot, the fare still does not change.

This is the one city where the gap between a quoted fare and a live-priced one can double in the time it takes to reach the curb. Weather, a Knicks game and a Friday at five all do the same thing to a surge multiplier.

• Rain and rush hour are exactly when a demand-priced ride costs the most and takes longest to arrive. A reserved car is already assigned and already on its way.
• JFK and Newark are the two trips where surge does the most damage. Ours is the same price at 6am on a Tuesday and 6pm on the Sunday of a holiday weekend.
• Manhattan parking runs 50–90 a day in a Midtown garage. Two transfers usually cost less than parking a rental for a weekend.
• Luggage and children are where app-matched vehicles fail. You choose the vehicle class by bag count here, and child seats are installed before pickup.