NYC council passed a regulation on the ride sharing apps, capping the number of vehicles on the road.
If you were to look closely at supply and demand curves, you will see that when you restrict supply, prices will rise (All other things being equal of course). Mayor Bill de Blasio had this to say:
“Our 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.”
As a native New Yorker, I can be the first to attest that NYC had a traffic problem long before Uber was ever even thought of.
The problem with Uber and Lyft in the mind of government officials is this:
It threatens their legitimacy.
Remember their is a lie by governments. That is, all of these laws passed by them are supposed to keep us safe. The government must licensee people! This will keep you safe!
If any of this was true, Uber would have been very dangerous when it first hit the market. I can also attest that yellow cabs in NYC are far more dangerous than Ubers. When Uber came out, there was no regulations on it. You could travel around NYC for cheap. Over the years NYC has passed more and more laws on these ride sharing apps. The results have been steady increases in prices.
Someone should show Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYC council a supply and demand curve.