I'd argue that it's a special night, one of the few nights where people like to make plans in advance.

Therefore traditional push notification to get behind the wheel and start driving wouldn't work if the driver already made plans to celebrate New Year's with the family (and perhaps consume alcohol).

This is why I like Lyft a lot more. They don't take a cut of the surge portion of the fare - and removes the incentive for them to override the surge multiplier for profits' sake.

This used to be the case, but Lyft now takes 20% of the total fare, including surge

Aww crap. Guess I stick to regular taxis from now on...