Under the new regulations published by Mexico City, smartphone-based ridesharing applications like Uber can now freely and legally operate in the city. Last July 3, the Office of Legal and Legislative Studies of Mexico City proposed regulations that could help fund the city's transportation infrastructure.

The proposal would require taxi drivers and cabs to register while the city will create an application for these licensed taxis and assist them in paying the GPS technology, according to Auto Blog.

Nevertheless, the regulations are now clear after the city published the new guidelines. The rules specified the "fund" that was mentioned last July 3. It was identified as the "Taxi, Mobility and Pedestrian Fund, which will be used to improve taxi and app-based services," as stated by Travel Weekly.

In addition to having a fund, the drivers who are willing to participate in ride-sharing apps like Uber are required to register with Mexico City's transportation secretary. Yearly, the cab drivers who registered are compulsory to submit their taxis for assessments.

The new regulations were warmly welcomed by Uber and the transportation network company praised the government on July 16, Thursday, for being the largest first Latin America city to release official regulations to support ride-sharing apps. According to Luis De Uriarte, Uber's director of communications for Mexico and Central America, the rules that the city issued is considered as "an innovative regulation that embraces technology for the benefit of the public," as reported by Auto Blog.

However, not all are happy with the legalization of ride-share apps operations. Some taxi drivers' associations in Mexico City were against the new rules. They are asking the government to provide a limitation to those drivers who are utilizing the ride-sharing apps. The ratio that they are negotiating with the city is one taxi for every 50 regular cabs will be allowed to use the apps. Thus, limiting the number of cabs using the ride-sharing apps to 2,800.

A member of the United Taxis and Leaders group, Pedro Soria, said the regulations issued by the government were only in favor with the apps. He claimed the guidelines did not create a fair competition among cab drivers, instead, the city created a "playing field that's anything but level," according to Monterey Herald.

On the other hand, the spokesman of Organized Taxi Drivers of Mexico City, Ignacio Rodriguez, said they are willing to fight the new regulations in court. Although they are currently doing the negotiations peacefully with the government, they cannot assure that they will not resort to demonstrations like what they did in the past, which caused heavy traffic in the city.