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Uber Will Spend $10 Million to Solve a Problem It Helped Create

Congestion in New York City last month. Uber announced on Wednesday that it would spend $10 million to help cities, including New York, develop more efficient transportation policies.Credit...Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The extraordinary rise of Uber has transformed the ride-hail industry and in some cities, including New York, it has contributed to increased congestion. Now, Uber, in a move that was met with derision by critics, says it wants to help solve some of the problems it has helped cause.

The company announced on Wednesday that it would spend $10 million to help cities develop more efficient transportation policies and reduce congestion and vehicle emissions.

The money will be given out over the next three years as part of a campaign by Uber to support efforts around the world to get more people to leave their personal cars at home and take greener alternatives such as car pools, public transit and bikes. To that end, some of the money will be used to advocate for congestion pricing plans, which charge drivers for entering the busiest neighborhoods at peak traffic times.

Uber, which has long guarded data collected by its vehicles, will also release data on the speeds traveled on individual streets to more cities to help them better assess traffic conditions and manage congestion. The campaign will give $250,000 to SharedStreets, a transportation data-sharing project, to develop ways to publicly share data from Uber and other private technology companies. Separately, Uber has also released some of its data on pickups and drop-offs as part of another effort to help cities reimagine the use of curb space that is usually reserved for parking.

“As more people have come to rely on Uber, our technology has become an important part of the transportation fabric of cities,” Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive officer, wrote in a blog post announcing the campaign. “With that comes a responsibility: we recognize we need to step up and support cities that take bold steps to solve their transportation problems. We are in a unique position to have a meaningful and positive impact on the communities we serve across the globe — a responsibility we don’t take lightly.”

But some critics, including taxi owners and drivers, pointed out that Uber was a major reason congestion has gotten worse in many cities. Last month, New York became the first American city to halt new vehicle licenses for ride-hailing services, whose vehicles often drive around empty in between passengers on the busiest streets. The number of for-hire vehicles in the city has surged past 100,000 from about 63,000 in 2015.

Critics also said that $10 million was little more than pocket change for one of the world’s most highly valued firms, at $62 billion, as it prepares for an initial public offering that is expected next year. Mr. Khosrowshahi has been working to repair Uber’s image after a series of controversies in recent years, including complaints among workers over discrimination and harassment.

“We are in a ‘physician heal thyself’ moment, where ‘Dr. Uber’ is suggesting things to alleviate congestion when in fact one of the major causes of that congestion is the excess number of their vehicles clogging New York City streets,” said Richard Lipsky, a spokesman for taxi medallion owners. “If Uber is genuinely concerned about congestion, they would take the initiative and cut the number of their vehicles.”

In the latest sign of worsening gridlock, the city’s annual congestion warning system — “gridlock alert days” — was expanded to 16 days from 10 days last year and was launched this week instead of waiting until the holidays as the United Nations General Assembly session has brought thousands of world leaders, including President Trump, and their security details.

Uber officials said their campaign grew out of their efforts to support a comprehensive congestion pricing plan for New York City.

Earlier this year, a state-appointed task force, Fix NYC, had proposed such a congestion zone in Manhattan as the centerpiece of a plan that also included surcharges on rides in for-hire vehicles. But the congestion zone failed to gain wide support in Albany especially in an election year, in part because many drivers outside Manhattan saw it as primarily benefiting Manhattan at their expense. As part of this year’s budget, state leaders eventually passed surcharges on rides south of 96th Street — $2.50 in yellow taxis, $2.75 in other for-hire vehicles — that are expected to raise more than $400 million annually for public transportation.

Uber spent $350,000 for television and internet ads and phone calls to back this year’s congestion pricing effort, which was supported by a broad coalition of transportation, business and community organizations. Mr. Khosrowshahi pledged that Uber would provide at least $1 million from the campaign announced Wednesday to continue supporting efforts in New York next year. “We’re ready to do our part to help cities that want to put in place smart policies to tackle congestion — even if that means paying money out of our own pocket to pass a tax on our core business,” he wrote.

Alex Matthiessen, who led the congestion pricing push, said that he welcomed Uber’s support as advocates are planning a renewed effort to pass the congestion zone as part of next year’s state budget to help pay for subway repairs proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“The conditions are right for passing the rest of the Fix NYC congestion pricing plan next year,” Mr. Matthiessen said. “We have a full-blown subway crisis, the election will be behind us, and the M.T.A. has produced a credible and popular plan for how to fix the subways that puts transit riders first.”

Andrew Salzberg, who oversees transportation policy for Uber, said the company has a stake in reducing congestion because its drivers and riders are directly impacted by it. He added that Uber views its ride-hailing vehicles as a complement to public transit since people who do not own cars often need to make use of both to get around.

The new campaign will also give money to PeopleForBikes, an advocacy group that supports policies that encourage biking in cities. Mr. Salzberg said that Uber will identify additional projects to support through its local offices.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: Uber to Spend $10 Million to Ease Traffic Woes It Helped Create. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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