02.01.18 - Uber, Lyft take pledge to help make cities ‘livable’
"Uber and Lyft are leaders of an industry accused of choking Manhattan with traffic. But they are among 15 transportation and technology companies that just agreed to a set of principles aimed at ensuring innovations in mobility to make cities livable. The agreement, announced Thursday by a global nonprofit dedicated to sustainability, has no enforcement provisions but means to provide a framework of cooperation among local governments, private companies and nongovernmental organizations."
"Led by the World Resources Institute, the initiative comes as the transportation industry races into uncharted territory with the development of self-driving cars and a potential shift to shared vehicles in place of personal ownership. The 10 “shared mobility principles for livable cities” that the companies signed onto are a sort of moral code for that new world."
"Asked how they would square their pledge to support the efficient use of vehicles with a business model that relies on flooding the streets with cars, representatives from Uber and Lyft said they supported congestion pricing to ease traffic. They added that their respective pooled-ride services, UberPool and LyftLine, could play a role."