De Blasio vs Uber heats up on eve of NYC Council vote

Liberal NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio recently called for a regulatory attack on ride-sharing company Uber.

McNamee made his remarks after the city agreed not to cap the number of for-hire drivers while it studies how these services are impacting traffic and the environment in one of the world’s largest cities.

“What’s good about this understanding is it’s going to allow us to study the situation with some real limits in place, and we don’t take any option off the table”, de Blasio said. The city has suggested that Uber’s expansion may be responsible for slower traffic speeds in Manhattan, a charge the company has rejected. While most Islanders have cars – they need them to get around – Uber is an easy way to return to Island late at night or travel within the borough without driving drunk.

In a statement provided to WIRED, New York First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris said that the agreement “sets in motion a plan to guide a comprehensive and fair public response, driven by data, to the increase in for-hire vehicles”.

NEW YORK – The city of New York has capitulated in its bitter feud with Uber, agreeing on Wednesday to shelve plans to cap the number of vehicles operated by the online ride-booking service.

To reach a deal, Uber agreed to work with the mayor’s administration on a joint transportation study investigating the traffic and environmental effects for-hire companies have on the city.

City officials say that yellow taxis make 90% of their trips in Manhattan. “Taxi drivers have been serving 1 million people before Uber stepped into this town”, said Bhairavi Desai, of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.

Meanwhile, activists were expected to gather at City Hall late Wednesday to amplify some of the administration’s other talking points, including Uber’s lack of benefits for its drivers, its lack of a surcharge to help fund transit projects and its lack of widespread handicap accessibility. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced that the study will be passed Thursday but no longer carry a cap. This doesn’t mean the auto service is in the clear, because if they violate any portion of the agreement the cap could still be implemented.

Uber is in over 300 cities in 58 countries and is no stranger to regulatory battles.

City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez, chairman of the council’s transportation committee, was a strong supporter of the bill.

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De Blasio, who has donors in the competing taxicab industry, had sought to portray the San Francisco-based company as a “multibillion-dollar corporation” anxious only about its bottom line while trying to skirt government regulation.