New York City May Cap the Number of Uber, Lyft Vehicles On Its Streets (engadget.com)

New York City may become the first major U.S. city to cap the number of Uber and other ride-sharing vehicles on the road. According to Engadget, "The City Council is looking at proposed legislation that would largely freeze the issuance of ridesharing vehicle licenses while officials work on a year-long study of the cars' effects." Wheelchair-accessible vehicles would be exempt from any cap. From the report: This wouldn't be the first time the city tried a cap -- it abandoned an attempt in 2015. There's greater pressure to consider a limit this time, though. NYC now has over 100,000 ride-hailing cars (up from 63,000 back in 2015), and a string of suicides by both ridesharing and taxi drivers has raised questions about working conditions that can include low pay, long hours and poor compensation for time off. On top of the cap, the Council is looking at raising minimum pay and otherwise regulating on-demand transportation services. NYC is concerned that the growth of ridesharing is coming at the expense of drivers' well-being (regardless of who they work for), and it's unlikely to back down until it's satisfied these workers are receiving fair treatment. Uber argues the cap would "leave New Yorkers stranded" without solving issues like congestion, taxi medallion ownership and mass transit. It claimed it would hinder passengers who live outside of Manhattan and don't have reliable alternatives to cabs or public transportation. The company even posted a commercial underscoring how difficult it was for some residents to hail taxis.

Comments

Re:Cool. They are going to cap normal cabs too the

[jonwil]

Normal cabs are already capped by the limited number of taxi medallions that are out there.

Re:What is this Capitalism that I keep hearing abo

[_Sharp'r_]

You know the NY City Council is 92% Democratic and 8% Republican, right?

Pretty sure the anti-Uber/Lyft crowd are the Democratic members, not the 4 Republicans on the council. That would be indicated by this effort being led by the Democratic Speaker of the City Council, Corey Johnson and the Democratic Mayor, Bill de Blasio.

It doesn't seem much of a contradiction for the Republicans to be the pro-free market Party on both the issues you mentioned and the Democratic Party to be the anti-free market Party on both of them.