The downside of ride-hailing: More New York City gridlock

The price of a car pool ride with the apps can be as low as $5

When Uber arrived in New York City in 2011, subway ridership was soaring and the medallions required to drive a yellow cab were selling for a sky-high $1 million.

But Uber had an enticing offer: Your ride could appear at the touch of a button.

Six years later, Uber and other ride-hailing apps are booming, an army of nearly 50,000 licensed vehicles that ferry hundreds of thousands of people across the city every day.

Ride-hailing apps, like Uber and Lyft, are rapidly transforming transportation in New York, emerging as an existential threat to the taxi industry and siphoning passengers away