Traveling with kiddos in NYC is no easy feat, and Uber or Lyft is a sigh of relief when you can't catch the train or simply didn't get out of the house on time (the typical culprit).
For those who are used to ordering a ride and confirming a pick-up spot within minutes, there's a new roadblock facing NYC residents during their commutes. Yesterday, the city approved bills that would put a temporary one-year cap on new licenses for ride-hailing companies, according to NBC New York. The claim is that these vehicles are not only taking over traffic (there are over 100,000 cars throughout the city), but they're also harming the yellow taxi industry.
"Our city is directly confronting a crisis that is driving working New Yorkers into poverty and our streets into gridlock," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement, according to NBC. "The unchecked growth of app-based for-hire vehicle companies has demanded action, and now we have it."
On the other side of the coin, these companies seem to believe they're able to take passengers to outer-borough destinations that exceeds yellow cabs' travel routes, and they feel as though they're providing reliable methods of transportation during a turbulent time (hello L train shutdown).
How will Uber's largest American market react to this change? Will New Yorkers go back to the old days of raising their hands and hailing a cab? Or, will families continue with their routines as per usual?
Uber plans to work with NYC to devise a way to monitor the service, so time will tell how commutes are affected. Whether or not your routines will change, might as well try to leave home on time (these five tricks can help). Better to have time on your hands for a quick coffee run than head to your destination 15 minutes late, right?
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