Stringer opposes plan to cap Uber, opposing de Blasio

Update: City won't cap Uber's growth for four months

July 22, 2015 Associated Press

An Uber sign on one of their designated vehicles. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

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Comptroller Scott Stringer is calling for the New York City Council to delay a vote on capping the number of Uber cars on city streets.

Stringer said Tuesday that he opposed the cap. The council wants to impose it for a year while studying the ride-hailing service’s impact on traffic.

Stringer says the study should be completed before any decision on a cap is made.

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Update: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration announced Wednesday that Uber agreed to a four-month study on the impact of the cars on traffic and the environment, according to AP. Under the deal, the city will not cap Uber’s growth during those four months. Uber also committed to make more of its vehicles handicap-accessible and to turn over data to the city on the location and duration of its rides.

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Stringer’s position breaks from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s stance. Both are Democrats.

But Stringer says Uber also needs to make concessions, including instituting a ride surcharge to help fund the region’s public transit network.

San Francisco-based Uber opposes any sort of cap and has unleashed an ad campaign against de Blasio.

“Mayor de Blasio said he wanted a ‘data driven approach,’ when in reality his approach has been to hide the data that shows his policies are flat out wrong,” said Josh Mohrer, Uber’s New York general manager. “From 7am-7pm, Uber has an average of 1,904 vehicles in Manhattan south of 59th street, far fewer than yellow taxis. For months, we have provided the de Blasio administration with data that shows this exact same trend, yet apparently the Mayor’s approach was to hide this data from the public and blame Manhattan’s congestion on Uber even when his own facts show the exact opposite.”

A City Council spokesman said a vote on the cap could be held Thursday.