An Uber driver who drove for the company in Chicago was recently suspended due to unpaid ticket debt owed to the city. Analysis and data discovery shows Chicago’s ticketing policies are putting Uber and Lyft workers out of a job while disproportionately impacting black and low-income neighborhoods and driving motorists into bankruptcy.
According to the Southland Marquee, former Uber driver David Neustadter was suspended due to his outstanding debt from parking and camera tickets, according to City of Chicago policies. Neustadter was unaware he owed $2,600 in ticketing debt.
“If you get tickets and you can't pay them, then you can't drive for Uber at all,” Neustadter told the Southland Marquee. “That camera thing … you can't just crawl down the street at just 20 miles an hour.”
Chicago’s ticketing policies come from Cook County code which allows the city to revoke any business license. According to Sec. 54-391 of the Cook County Code of Ordinances, a business license may be revoked, suspended or denied renewal if the person has a form of unpaid debt to the city.
The city allows appeals but a 2018 piece by ProPublica Illinois found that most affected by this policy turn to filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy to pay the debt; a license may only be reinstated if the debt is paid back in full. ProPublica Illinois analysis found that from 2007-2021, the City of Chicago boosted their red light camera ticketing system by increasing fines and installing more cameras. Additionally, the tickets accounted for $264 million in revenue for the city in 2016. Motorists who find themselves behind on ticket debt and face a license suspension turn to a city payment plan or bankruptcy, which ProPublica Illinois reports most likely will not work out.
“That program actually is really harmful to a lot of people who can't afford to be paying all that expensive money for tickets. It’s a scam because you don't even know when the red light camera is there unless you see it,” Neustadter told the Southland Marquee.
According to 2019 data from WBEZ Chicago, some 15,500 Lyft and Uber drivers lost their license due to this ticketing policy. Data analysis obtained through public records requests proves Chicago's ride-share suspensions have hit the city's majority black and low-income neighborhoods the hardest. Chicago ticket debt piles up disproportionately in the city’s low-income, mostly black neighborhoods. Eight of the 10 ZIP codes with the most accumulated ticket debt per adult are majority black, according to a ProPublica analysis of ticket data in Illinois since 2007 and figures from the U.S. Census.
Further investigation showed Chicago is the only major city to have a license suspension policy based on unpaid ticket debts that puts gig-workers like Uber and Lyft drivers out of a job.
Pastor Darryl W. Russell of the Change You Can Believe In Missionary Baptist Church commented on this issue affecting his congregation, telling the Southland Marquee: “I have a problem with the ticket issue. I have had members in the church and my family have a rough time with parking tickets and speed and red light cameras. I think it’s a way the city gets revenue off the back of low-income neighborhoods, particularly black neighborhoods.”
The City of Chicago recently restarted their winter overnight parking ban which, according to Block Club Chicago, towed 242 cars on the first night, the most since 2019. The winter parking policy prohibits overnight parking (hours 3 to 7 a.m.) on 107 miles of streets in the city. City officials have said it allows for plows to clear the streets in case of weather conditions, however the policy remains in effect Dec. 1-April 1 regardless of weather. There is a minimum $150 towing fee, an additional $60 ticket and a $25/per day in storage.
Editor’s Note: This story is part of an ongoing series covering the impact of government policy on those earning money from the gig economy.