Uber Speeds Up, Tops Taxi Rides For The First Time
New Yorkers called ride-shares instead of hailing cabs about 12,000 more times a day in July, according to information from the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). That's out of about 289,000 total rides.
App-based car services like Uber and Lyft made the most significant gains in boroughs where the city’s iconic yellow cabs rarely venture, said Meera Joshi, who heads the TLC.
“A lot of people are using them as a primary mode of transportation or to connect to public transportation,” she said. “Historically, yellow cabs have stayed in Manhattan and that hasn't changed much.”
A full 90 percent of all yellow cab rides began in Manhattan, compared with just one percent in Brooklyn and zero for the Bronx and Staten Island. Seven percent of yellow cab rides began in Queens, home of the city's two airports.
App-based ride-shared have about a 50-50 split between Manhattan and the other boroughs.
Joshi lauded an expansion of transportation options for outer borough residents, but said she has her reservations given what she called “a price-cut war.”
“As consumers are paying less and less [for ride-shares],” she said, “We need to be mindful of whether that’s affecting the drivers’ bottom line and if they are also making less and less.”
