here is my experience with that parade today: 1: got a surging X ping (1.2X) in a clear area not far from the action, no traffic. But they were heading towards the action. 20 minutes later, I'm $8 richer and stuck in traffic. 20 minutes later, after ignoring all other pings, Im out of the traffic. Shouldve cancelled on the first guy.
Took me another hour to get out of Brooklyn. The whole boro isnt safe to drive in because chances are you will get a ping that will require you to go through the traffic. I used df to my advantage, but still basically wasted about an hour.
Now its 9 pm and im back in bk. streets have been open (no blockades) for hours. get a ping, 2.0 and "9 minutes away". There was so much traffic though that it took 30 minutes to go the half mile to get to the pickup point.
Uber should introduce a feature that generates surges when theres a lot of traffic, even when there are lots of ubers around. im betting it was awful hard to get an uber at that parade.