Welcome to the tech policy podcast, your source from policy rants and raves from tech freedom, your Washington, D.C. advocate for the freedom to tinker and innovate.

On today's show, Uber and the controversial world

of ride sharing. Joining me in our studio is Jared Meyer, a policy research fellow at the Manhattan

Institute. Jared, thank you for joining me. Hey, thanks for having me, Evan. Jared is also the co-author

of Disinherited, How Washington is Betraying America's Young. He also recently received

the honor of being one of Forbes magazine's 30 under 30 for law and policy. Congratulations,

Jared. Oh, thanks so much. All of this at such a young age, a book, and the accolades. Is it fair to

say that you've peaked too early? Maybe, but I'm hoping Uber still stays in the news, so I continue to have something to

write about.

All right.

So we'll see if you can keep the magic going into your 30s.

New York City is obviously one of Uber's biggest markets, and how the platform gets regulated

there not only affects the company's bottom line, but it's also going to influence how other

states decides to regulate it.

So last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a cap on Uber, which essentially would limit the amount of new drivers that the company could hire or partner with.

And he claims that this was really about traffic congestion.

He was worried that Uber would make traffic

worse. But it's worth noting that he also received a lot of donations from the taxi industry

back when he was running for mayor in 2013. So after a major backlash from drivers, consumers,

and Uber itself, the mayor dropped the proposal and instead made a deal with Uber. What was that deal?

So what de Blasio said was that ride-sharing companies such as Uber could keep expanding while the

city studied the effects on Manhattan traffic. And this was supposed to be released in November,

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