New York City votes to cap Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing services

published 8 August 2018

The New York City Council on Wednesday passed a package of bills that caps the number of Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hail vehicles on the road for one year.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission will spend the next 12 months studying the effects of ride-hail services in New York. The City Council also voted to set a minimum wage for these drivers.

People who want to rein in Uber and Lyft say their drivers are taking over the streets, making traffic even worse. Supporters of the companies say they help neighborhoods outside of Manhattan, where it's harder to find a taxi. In a statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city is "directly confronting a crisis that is driving working New Yorkers into poverty and our streets into gridlock. The unchecked growth of app-based for-hire vehicle companies has demanded action — and now we have it."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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