Source: New York City, Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
The introduction of on-demand ride-sharing services substantially impacted urban mobility in terms of the market composition of for-hire services and the related number of trips. On-demand services are technically and operationally more competitive than conventional taxi services. The case of New York City is reflective since its high density and income generate tens of millions of for-hire trips each month. The conventional taxi services were offered by Yellow Taxis, which has the right to pick up passengers at all New York City locations, including airports. At the same time, Green Taxis (also called ‘Boro Taxis’) can only pick up passengers outside the Manhattan core market (excluding airports).
On-demand ride-sharing services such as Uber, Lyft, Via, and Juno were introduced in 2011 (for Uber) and slowly started to gain market share. By 2017 they accounted for more than 50% of all monthly for-hire trips, and by 2019 this share climbed to 74%. The ease of booking on-demand services also doubled the demand during the 2015 to 2019 period, while the demand for conventional taxi services was halved. This involves a larger number of vehicles in circulation in high-density areas and related congestion. This has incited the City of New York to impose in 2018 a limit to the number of for-hire vehicles that can circulate in Manhattan at a given time.