WILLIAMSBURG — A car service app is now offering some Brooklyn riders unlimited weekly passes, much like MetroCards.
Whisk, a platform that partners with car service companies to allow riders to request cars through their phones, is now offering residents of some Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Red Hook, Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, a flat rate package for travel between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Users choose one location in each borough, and can pay a set weekly price for unlimited rides between the two. Riders are not currently permitted to choose two destinations within Brooklyn, however.
Subscribers who regularly travel between Williamsburg and the Lower East Side would pay about $185 a week, hopping from Park Slope to Midtown will run $318 a week and trips from Downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side will set you back $336 a week, according to Whisk's website.
Michael Ibrahim, Whisk's co-founder and CEO, said the pass will eliminate the risk of price surging during busy hours, and allow users not to think about the cost of each individual ride.
“Everyone else is very transactional,” he said, referring to other popular car service apps like Uber, which do not offer subscriptions. “Every ride is very independent. It doesn’t matter if you took a million rides.”
Unlike Uber, Whisk does not allow users to request yellow cabs. It also partners with specific car companies rather than individual drivers. In Williamsburg, its partner is Brooklyn Radio Dispatcher.
The unlimited option launched Monday in Brooklyn, and is designed for those who frequently use car services to travel between the two boroughs. The package debuted last month for Manhattan residents, who also have the option of buying a pass for rides from one specific point to any other within the borough.
The prices of the weekly passes vary based on the distance between a rider’s destinations, though Ibrahim said he estimates it is worth the money if riders commute back and forth by car service at least four times per week. Rates can be calculated on Whisk’s website.
