New York City is considering a cap on the number of ride-hailing vehicles allowed in the city.
A proposal backed by City Council speaker Corey Johnson aims to freeze issuance of new for-hire vehicle licenses for a year. The city would then conduct a study of the industry’s impact.
Proponents argue that Uber and Lyft are killing the city’s traditional yellow cab industry and contributing to increased congestion.
“Our goal has always been to protect drivers, bring fairness to the industry and reduce congestion,” Johnson said in a statement, as quoted by The New York Times. “That’s what this proposal does, and it represents the broad outlines of what we think our next steps should be as a city to help the industry.”
New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission limits the number of yellow cabs via medallions. The system resulted in medallion sale values into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and created a market ripe for disruption from loosely regulated ride-hailing services such as Uber.
“The City Council’s Uber cap will leave New Yorkers stranded while doing nothing to prevent congestion, fix the subways and help struggling taxi medallion owners,” said Uber spokesman Josh Gold. “The Council’s cap will hurt riders outside Manhattan who have come to rely on Uber because their communities have long been ignored by yellow taxis and do not have reliable access to public transit.”
The city has long kept the number of medallions below 15,000, while Uber and Lyft are credited with a surge in the total number of for-hire vehicles from 63,000 in 2015 to more than 100,000 today. The impact of ride-hailing vehicles on congestion is unclear, however, as many operate only on a part-time basis.
New York City is considering a cap on the number of ride-hailing vehicles allowed in the city.
A proposal backed by City Council speaker Corey Johnson aims to freeze issuance of new for-hire vehicle licenses for a year. The city would then conduct a study of the industry's impact.
Proponents argue that Uber and Lyft are killing the city's traditional yellow cab industry and contributing to increased congestion.
"Our goal has always been to protect drivers, bring fairness to the industry and reduce congestion," Johnson said in a statement, as quoted by The New York Times. "That's what this proposal does, and it represents the broad outlines of what we think our next steps should be as a city to help the industry."
New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission limits the number of yellow cabs via medallions. The system resulted in medallion sale values into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and created a market ripe for disruption from loosely regulated ride-hailing services such as Uber.
"The City Council's Uber cap will leave New Yorkers stranded while doing nothing to prevent congestion, fix the subways and help struggling taxi medallion owners," said Uber spokesman Josh Gold. "The Council's cap will hurt riders outside Manhattan who have come to rely on Uber because their communities have long been ignored by yellow taxis and do not have reliable access to public transit."
The city has long kept the number of medallions below 15,000, while Uber and Lyft are credited with a surge in the total number of for-hire vehicles from 63,000 in 2015 to more than 100,000 today. The impact of ride-hailing vehicles on congestion is unclear, however, as many operate only on a part-time basis.
