Uber has had a very good weekend, with the ride-sharing startup no longer facing any limits on its controversial surge pricing in New York and a new study finding it is giant not responsible for increased traffic in the city.
Instead, the report places the blame mainly on “freight movement, construction activity and population growth”, with Uber only having “inadvertent impacts”, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Last year New York mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to stunt Uber’s growth in the city, arguing that ride-sharing apps were to blame for the city’s increasingly bad congestion.
He announced possible regulations in New York that could have limited Uber’s ability to surge prices in order to increase supply but de Blasio has now backed down from these proposals.
It comes after a New Year period which saw many Uber users slugged with huge fares due to large surges.
Uber general manager in New York City Josh Mohrer released a statement praising the study and the mayor.
“We are supportive of several of the proposals presented today, especially efforts to empower drivers by giving them more freedom to partner with companies across the industry,” Mohrer said.
“We will be reviewing the policy ideas and hope to work with the de Blasio administration and the City Council on implementing many of them.”
Denham Sadler is a former editor of StartupSmart. He was previously a journalist at the publication and has worked as a freelancer for the Guardian, the Saturday Paper and the ABC. In his spare time he likes puns and jaffles.
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