Transport for London will no longer try to choke Uber

Transport for London has dropped proposals to place restrictions on Uber in the capital, which would have included a compulsory five minute wait time when hailing a cab.

Last year TfL proposed guidelines that would restrict services like Uber in order to ease the frustration of rival cab operators who complained that Uber was creating unfair competition.

Guidelines included a minimum five-minute wait time between booking and Uber and starting your journey (no matter how close the car was) and not allowing people to see the live position of cars within the app. There was also a proposal for private-hire companies to let users pre-book cabs up to seven days in advance.

These guidelines will not been taken forward, TfL has confirmed.

Garrett Emmerson, TfL's Chief Operating Officer for Surface Transport, said, "Londoners have given a very clear indication of how they would like us to shape the regulation of the private hire industry to deliver improved safety and customer service."

More than 200,000 people had already signed a petition against the proposals.

But there will be some restrictions

However, TfL will move forward with some proposals to curb the fast-rising numbers of cabs in the capital, as well as regulating problems of fare abuse.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said that we could not "turn back the clock on technological progress", but has asked TfL to investigate the removal of the Congestion Charging exemption for privacy hire vehicles.

"Private hire vehicles now represent over 10 per cent of vehicles entering the Congestion Charging zone on a daily basis," he said.

TfL also wants to impose a minimum English language requirement on all London taxi drivers.