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Carpooling Service — Not Uber — Expands Into Greenwich Village and SoHo

 Via, a carsharing company that offers rides for $5, is expanding its service to pick up customers below 14th Street to Houston Street.
Via, a carsharing company that offers rides for $5, is expanding its service to pick up customers below 14th Street to Houston Street.
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Uber

GREENWICH VILLAGE — Just days after Uber successfully killed a plan by the city that would have capped the company's ability to add new drivers, another ridesharing company called Via is expanding its service in Manhattan down to Houston Street.

Via's CEO and co-founder, Daniel Ramot, said his two-year-old company would also have been impacted by the legislation in question.

"We've had productive conversations with both the mayor's office and City Council, and we're confident that they understand the value of services like ours," Ramot said. "We look forward to continuing to work together with the city to ensure that any potential legislation does not handicap services like Via that are part of the solution."

Via is "part of the solution," Ramot said, because it "is fundamentally different than the sorts of for-hire vehicle models the city has concerns about," like Uber.

Ramot said Via actually cuts traffic congestion and car emissions, two of the concerns Mayor Bill de Blasio raised when he attempted to curb Uber's growth in the city by limiting the number of new for-hire vehicles the city would allow.

Via is more like a carpool than a car service: Riders always share rides, which are always either $5 or $7 depending on if the ride is pre-purchased regardless of the length and distance of the ride.

Other ride services offer carpooling features as well, such as Uber's UberPool and Lyft's Lyft Line.

A Via company spokeswoman said average pickup times are under seven minutes. Adding to the company's relative bargain-status: Members can pay with pre-tax money if they have transit benefits through their employer.

This week's expansion means Via's drivers can pick up riders in Manhattan from 110th Street down to Houston Street. The service's previous southern border was 14th Street.

Ramot said the company plans to expand further south as the year progresses.

"We want every Manhattanite to be able to access Via from anywhere in the city by the end of the year," Ramot said.

Via recently got an infusion of funding to the tune of $37.1 million, and now has 100,000 members, according to a company spokeswoman. The spokeswoman said the company has provided over a million rides in the two years since its founding.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Via had $27 million in new funding, and a total of $100,000. The new funding actually totals $37.1 million and the company has 100,000 members.