NYC Wastes No Time Putting Ride-Hail Cap In Place

NEW YORK, NY — New York City's new laws reining in ride-hailing apps have officially hit the road. The city planned to stop issuing most new for-hire vehicle licenses on Tuesday after Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a first-in-the-nation bill aiming to stem the growth of services such as Uber and Lyft.

The one-year freeze on such licenses, with an exception for wheelchair-accessible vehicles, was among five measures de Blasio signed in a landmark effort to assuage traffic congestion and aid struggling professional drivers. The City Council passed the bills last week.

Officials didn't waste any time implementing other pieces of the package. The Taxi and Limousine Commission will adopt within 75 days a rule setting minimum pay for app-based drivers, as one of the bills requires, the mayor's office said. And the city initiated a study of the industry to determine how to best regulate it going forward while the freeze is in place.

"The City Council has spoken boldly, and now we can act," de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement. "We are taking immediate action for the benefit of more than 100,000 hard-working New Yorkers who deserve a fair wage, and halting the flood of new cars grinding our streets to a halt."

Other bills the mayor signed will create regulations specific to high-volume for-hire services, waive licensing fees for wheelchair-accessible vehicles and trim fines for illegal street hails.

The bills marked a major victory for taxi workers who had pushed for the legislation amid the recent suicides of six professional drivers. They also won praise from the Independent Drivers Guild, a labor group for Uber, Lyft, Via and Juno drivers.

"Throughout my time, the City Council and the TLC turned their backs on the black car industry, profiting from its labor while drivers struggled to survive," said guild founder Jim Conigliaro Jr. "But this Council, this Mayor and this TLC are changing things."

Uber and Lyft fought the freeze hard, arguing it could lead to more expensive and less reliable service for riders, especially in the transit-starved outer boroughs. Uber also contended it would put a squeeze on drivers who rent their vehicles rather than own them.

Uber stood by its pledge to do whatever is necessary to keep up with demand. The company has said the city should get fully behind proposed tolls on vehicles entering central and lower Manhattan to more meaningfully address traffic congestion.

"With the stroke of a pen, Mayor de Blasio has shown his indifference to millions of New Yorkers who live in the outer boroughs and could be left stranded because of the broken subway system that he refuses to fix," Uber spokeswoman Danielle Filson said in a statement.

(Lead image: For-hire driver Johan Nijman heads through Manhattan on Aug. 8, 2018. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)