Brooklyn Boro

Letters to the editor: Opinions flying fast on NYC Uber, Lyft vehicle cap proposal

August 7, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Rick Russo, Acting President, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Eagle file photo by Andy Katz
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As the leading voice of Brooklyn’s business community, we applaud efforts to seek solutions for traffic and transportation issues across the city. We realize the success of promoting Brooklyn as a world-class destination for tourism, attractions, and events depends on equal access to a steady supply of transportation alternatives, which the for-hire vehicle industry offers.

The for-hire vehicle system supports entrepreneurship, which is crucial to economic development in our city, and New Yorkers agree. In our 2016 issues survey, 80 percent of respondents either supported or strongly supported the prospect of expanding the use of app-based ride-sharing platforms across the state. 

It is important that all New York City neighborhoods have access to their preferred method of transportation and capping the number of for-hire vehicles on the streets will create a painful shortage in reliable transportation options. As such, we urge additional feedback from stakeholders for the proposal placing a cap on new for-hire vehicle licenses, in the hope that a practical and expedient way forward can be forged.

 

Rick Russo

Acting President, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce

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To the Editor:

Everyone in New York, except a comatose patient in the hospital, knows that vehicular traffic is unbearable and out of control.

Manhattan truly is 14 miles long and two hours wide. Now the best neighborhoods in the outer boroughs are jammed. Quality of life is suffering.

Note to City Council: authorize an Uber-like app for yellow and green cabs, administer the service through 311 and collect a small fee for the service.

(Then use that revenue  to improve the subways.) 

And, yes, limit Uber and Lyft pick-ups to outer boroughs, and cap their vehicle volume.

See how easy it is to fix urban problems? 

—Sam Howe

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