De Blasio's $2M Uber Study Recommends Zero Cap

By SIMONE WILSON (Patch Staff)

MANHATTAN, NY — What began in 2015 as a bitter feud between New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and Uber, the city’s largest for-hire vehicle service, ended Friday with a soft, cuddly, 14-page mayoral report concluding that for-hire vehicles have not significantly impacted traffic congestion in NYC.

“E-dispatch does not appear to be driving the additional congestion experienced in the [Central Business District],” reads the report, which cost $2 million to prepare.

That’s a considerably different tune than De Blasio was singing back in July, when he told the press: “There are a lot of unintended consequences we’re starting to see, congestion and pollution. ... The logical thing for government to do is to say, ’We have to have some rules here, and some regulation.”

Although study authors have advised the mayor to impose a few taxes and regs on companies like Lyft and Uber in exchange for free range in the city, they’ve also obliterated the largest threat facing Uber in a single sentence:

”The study does not recommend a cap on for-hire vehicles at this time.”

In a statement sent to Patch, Josh Mohrer, Uber’s general manager for New York, called the report ”thoughtful” and said he was ”supportive of several of the proposals” presented within.

Mohrer’s full statement, below.

“We appreciate the thoughtful process Mayor de Blasio and his administration have engaged in over the last several months to improve the commercial car industry. We also want to thank Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the City Council for working with stakeholders throughout this process. We are supportive of several of the proposals presented today, especially efforts to empower drivers by giving them more freedom to partner with companies across the industry. We will be reviewing the policy ideas and hope to work with the de Blasio administration and the City Council on implementing many of them.”

Now that the report is complete, the mayor’s office plans to move forward with negotiations between the City Council and for-hire vehicle companies “to create comprehensive proposals to address accessibility, consumer and employee safety, mobility and securing support for our public transit system,” mayoral spokesman Peter Kadushin said in a statement.

You can browse the full study here. What do you think — worth $2 million in taxpayer dough?