Ride-hail company sues city over cruising rule

LYFT Inc, following its rival Uber’s move, has sued New York City seeking to nullify a new rule limiting the time its drivers are allowed to spend cruising in Manhattan without passengers, the company said on Saturday.

The lawsuit, filed by the San Franciscobased ride-hail company on Friday, argues that the cruising rule is arbitrary and threatens to shift business away from ridehailing companies like Lyft in favour of taxis.

“This rule is not a serious attempt to address congestion, and would hurt riders and drivers in New York,” Lyft spokesman Campbell Matthews said in a statement to Reuters.

The “cruising cap” rule, implemented by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), sets a 31 per cent limit on how much time drivers of app-based vehicles may drive without passengers in Manhattan south of 96th Street, meaning they would have to have fares at least 69 per cent of driving time.

“We will vigorously defend against this suit, and we will continue to fight for safer, less congested streets and for drivers’ rights,” TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said in a statement, but mentioned that the agency had not been served with the suit yet.

The rule, along with several others introduced last year, is aimed at reducing congestion in Manhattan, where rideshare vehicles make up close to a third of peak time traffic, according to the TLC.

Uber contested the rule in September along with another rule banning issuance of new licences to for-hire vehicles through August 2020.

Uber and Lyft disconnected drivers from their apps at times of slow demand this year in an effort to comply with the city regulation.

Both companies oppose the new rules, saying they will prevent drivers from earning money and deprive low-income New Yorkers of ride services in remote areas where regular taxis do not travel frequently. The city rejects that claim.