After a harrowing launch attempt and some legal wrangling with city regulators, Lyft has finally arrived in New York. Sort of. If you actually try to use the app, there are no rides to be found.

Lyft's east coast expansion is already hitting serious legal traffic. Despite billing itself as the savior of New York City, the city's tax commission was quick to declare the e-hailing startup illegal. Now the state's attorney general and the Taxi and Limousine Commission have placed a temporary restraining order against the startup.

Lyft has already been declared illegal in New York City. The city's taxi commission is threatening to impound driver's vehicles, saying the e-hailing startup hasn't complied with "safety requirements and other licensing criteria."

For too long, the war of words over e-hailing apps has been dominated by the Uber's bombastic CEO and fat cat taxi companies defending their turf. But filmmaker Max Maddox flips that script, exploring "the lives of drivers caught in the crosshairs" in his mini documentary "Taxi 2.0."

Even if your Lyft driver isn't trying to get in your jeggings with a fake cancer diagnosis, West Coast ridesharers face a new threat: citizen arrest.

Lyft is a popular Bay Area app that seeks to turn San Franciscans into private drivers for one another, under the lovely euphemism "ridesharing." Naturally, cab drivers feel threatened, and there's been plenty of grumbling. Now we hear the grumbling is turning to face-punches.

Here's how thinking about the world works in Silicon Valley: when public transportation is disrupted (in the old sense) due to labor disputes, that's not an inconvenience! It's an opportunity to plug your app and offer helicopter rides—literally fly over society's problems.