Major Victory for Uber


Recently, New York mayor de Blasio had gone on an all out attack on Uber, supporting a proposal to put a cap on the number of cars it uses in the city. Fortunately, this cap on Uber’s growth never saw the light of day. According to the New York Times:

The de Blasio administration has backed away from its fight with the app company Uber, agreeing on Wednesday to drop for now its plan to place a cap on the number of vehicles Uber operates in New York City.

[…]

Under an agreement with the company, the city will conduct a four-month study on the effect of Uber and other for-hire vehicle operators on New York’s traffic.

A City Council bill, which was to come to a vote as early as Thursday, had called for a cap on the company’s growth during the study. Officials said that a similar restriction remained a possibility down the line.

The arrangement requires Uber to release a trove of data the city had been seeking for its analysis, officials said.

[…]

In a statement, Josh Mohrer, Uber’s general manager in New York, praised the agreement, saying new drivers “will continue to be free to join the for-hire industry.”

The company said it was removing its ads criticizing the mayor and an app feature, known as “de Blasio view,” that had shown riders the lengthy projected wait times they might expect if the legislation passed.

The company had depicted Mr. de Blasio as a protector of the yellow taxi industry, whose leaders have been significant campaign contributors to the mayor.

Amid the barrage, Mr. de Blasio had moved this week to portray Uber as a Walmart on wheels, describing the company as a corporate behemoth and promoting the cap as a critical component of the traffic study.

“Uber is a multibillion-dollar corporation, and they’re acting like one,” he told reporters on Monday.

[…]

Perhaps the company’s most potent new ally, though, was a less surprising mayoral critic: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who waded into the conflict on Wednesday as a staunch defender of the company.

In a radio interview, Mr. Cuomo, with whom Mr. de Blasio is enmeshed in an open feud, called Uber “one of the great inventions of this new economy.”

“I don’t think government should be in the business of trying to restrict job growth,” he said on “The Capitol Pressroom.”

Mr. Cuomo joined a growing list of prominent Democrats who denounced the Council measure, including the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, and the Brooklyn borough president, Eric L. Adams.

According to the office of the City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, the legislation had the votes necessary to pass. In a statement, she suggested the agreement was a preferable path, saying the goal all along has been “to thoughtfully address the impacts of the explosive growth in the for-hire vehicle industry.”

Uber executives, administration officials and Council staff members met on Wednesday afternoon across from City Hall to finalize the terms.

The government of New York seems as if it thinks that it has the responsibility to eliminate growing businesses, as if a large, successful company was a threat to its citizens. As if this “Walmart on wheels” was the worst thing to possibly be created. A large, growing company such as Uber is only growing because of its success and its customer satisfaction. Stopping its growth in the name of “quality” would actually be cutting down on quality.

Source: New York Times



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