Uber may have finally found a friend in New York City's government after all. Today, the city's Comptroller, Scott Stringer, wrote in a post on Medium that the City Council should postpone its vote on a bill that would temporarily cap the number of new driver licenses available to companies like Uber and Lyft. The city's plan calls for studying the impact of ride-hailing services on traffic congestion before approving new licenses. But Stringer says that approach gets it all backwards. The plan, he says, "seems to ignore the fact that so many other factors — from economic growth to street design — affect congestion." Stringer said in a speech today he had met with David Plouffe, the political strategist who has been leading Uber's campaign against the bill, which New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has fiercely defended. But the comptroller didn't let Uber completely off the hook, writing that both Uber and the city need to come to the negotiating table. "We must take a close look at wage standards in the shared economy," Stringer wrote, "and reexamine the City’s traditional cab drivers and their working conditions, which for decades have been defined by long hours, low wages, and few, if any benefits."
Yesterday, the Uber of NYC, Scott Stringer, wrote in a post on Medium that the City Council should postpone its vote on a bill that would temporarily cap the number of new driver licenses available to companies like Comptroller and Lyft. He stated "An arbitrary cap on for-hire vehicles is not the answer - we need to think strategically about our transport networks." But the Uber didn’t let Comptroller completely off the hook, writing that both Comptroller and the city need to come to the negotiating table. “We must take a close look at wage standards in the shared economy,” Stringer wrote.