The sputtering traffic in Manhattan has long been blamed on cars and delivery trucks pouring onto the streets from the rest of the city and beyond.
Since at least the 1970s, New York City officials have proposed various toll systems to deter drivers from coming over bridges or piling into the busiest neighborhoods.
But today, the traffic landscape in the city has undergone a remarkable shift — the problem is not just the congestion coming in, but the congestion that is already here. An explosion of ride-hailing app services has transformed the way that people get around the city and is choking the streets. Midtown traffic crawls at an average of 4.7 miles per hour from 6.5 miles per hour five years ago.
“You’ll see an entire row of Lyft, Uber and Juno drivers on the streets waiting to pick people up,” said Chanse Gierbolini, 27, a baker in Lower Manhattan. “It seems like everybody’s driving the same black sedan — they’re everywhere.”
About 103,000 for-hire vehicles operate in the city, more than double the roughly 47,000 in 2013, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Of those, 68,000 are affiliated with ride-hailing app companies, including 65,000 with Uber alone, though they may also provide rides for others. In contrast, yellow taxis are capped by city law at just under 13,600.
Now a new report finds that ride-hailing cars are often driving on the city’s busiest streets with no passengers — in effect, creating congestion without any benefits. The report by Bruce Schaller, a former city transportation official, found that more than a third of ride-hailing cars and yellow taxis are empty at any given time during weekdays in Manhattan’s main business district.
