MIDTOWN — Comptroller Scott Stringer said a city plan to cap the growth of for-hire car services such as Uber before the city has studied the effects of traffic congestion is premature.
"With technology comes challenges but we cannot for a moment arbitrarily cap innovation and cap ingenuity for the sake of same old same old," Stringer said at a press conference Tuesday. "I hope that my colleagues in the council take this vote off the table."
Mayor Bill de Blasio supports City Council legislation that would cap the growth of for-hire vehicles at 1 percent for a year while the city conducted a traffic and congestion study.
A vote on the legislation is expected this week.
"There are already many more Uber vehicles than there are yellow taxis in New York City, and that’s just happened in a few years time. There are a lot of unintended consequences we’re starting to see in terms of congestion and pollution," de Blasio said Monday about the proposal.
The mayor said Uber was "putting their profits over all other considerations" and that the company could continue to grow during the year-long cap, just not as "exponentially" as before.
Uber says the mayor and the City Council are merely trying to appease their donors in the yellow taxi industry.
"It is not surprising there is growing opposition to the mayor's bill because try as they might, mayor de Blasio can't pretend protecting taxi owners is progressive," an Uber spokesman said in a statement.
Uber has gone on the offensive over the legislation, challenging de Blasio to a live stream debate, sending mailers to the districts of council members who support the plan, hosting rallies and adding a "de Blasio feature to its e-hail app that shows a 25 minute wait time for a vehicle that the company says will occur if they are constricted from growing.
Stringer said it's clear that the study should come first.
"We need to make sure that our transportation system works for everyone, including the city’s traditional yellow cabs, for-hire drivers, and most importantly the riding public," he added.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer also chimed in on Tuesday, saying that she would use her authority to host a Sept. 10 hearing on traffic congestion in Manhattan.
Brewer said Uber and other for-hire vehicles are "only one piece of a larger congestion puzzle," but stopped short of saying the council vote was premature.
De Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell said the city does not have the "luxury" to defer action because of the rapid growth of the for-hire industry.
“With the rush of new cars growing so rapidly — 2,000 each month — we need to take a brief pause before growing further so we can make sure that there are rules and protections in place for everyone," Norvell said. "This is a basic responsibility of government, and one we cannot simply delay."
Uber has said that capping their growth would hurt minority and low-income drivers trying to earn a decent living.
Stringer also said issues such as worker pay, accessibility and equal access need to be among the issues examined when it comes to the for-hire vehicle industry.
