Uber wins New York battle over a cap on city cars

The agreement brings to an end a hectic few days of negotiations

Uber has won a battle against New York over plans to limit the number of cars that it can operate in the city.

Uber, a taxi hailing app, has agreed to undertake a four-month study measuring its impact on traffic and pollution in the city.

The agreement brings to an end a hectic few days of negotiations at City Hall. A City Council Bill, due to be debated on Thursday, called for a cap on Uber’s growth while the study was taking place, according to the New York Times. A similar cap could be reportedly still be imposed later.

Uber must now release significant data that the City had sought for its own analysis.

New York’s first deputy mayor, Anthony E. Shorris, is in charge of City proceedings while Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor, is away. Shorris said a review of the entire car service industry would follow, with a view to making plans to improve public transport, the Times said.

Josh Mohrer, Uber’s general manger in New York, said Uber welcomed the agreement. The company had denied suggestions by the city council that it had slowed traffic in Manhattan. The cap on growth was designed to keep Uber’s growth at 1 per cent while a study of its impact on traffic was in force. Uber is currently growing at 3 per cent a month.

Uber has faced multiple problems in many different cities since it started in San Francisco in 2009, with some taxi drivers staging protests against the service. In New York, drivers of the city’s iconic yellow cabs feared that they were being overtaken by Uber.