Mayor DeBlasio shelled out $2 million for a study he expected would show that Uber and other car hailing services were making traffic in the Big Apple more congested — but the results proved just the opposite, The Post has learned.
The study found that the car services have made little if any difference on Manhattan’s already-crowded streets — largely because as Uber has expanded, yellow cab trips are down, sources said.
The study was ordered up last summer when de Blasio — who raked in more than $550,000 from the yellow cab industry for his run for mayor — said he wanted to cap the growth of Gotham’s app-aided, for-hire vehicle fleet.
Hizzoner backed off after Uber counterattacked — and order up the study, which was performed by the consultants McKinsey & Co. and a former city transportation official.
While it concluded that Uber and the other services had not made traffic even more nightmarish than it is, it also said traffic could get worse if Uber’s growth remained unchecked.
A rep for de Blasio said the city would examine its options.
“We intend to put forward a framework that addresses vital priorities, including expanding accessibility for the disabled and securing support for public transit,” said spokesman Wiley Norvell.
Ethan Gerber, executive director of the Greater New York Taxi Association, questioned the report’s accuracy, but admitted he had not yet seen it.
“Clearly, the congestion problem has gone up dramatically,” he said. “There are more for-hire vehicles on the road now then there have been in the history of the city. As a New Yorker and a Manhattanite, you can see how much worse the congestion is,” he said.
He also noted that TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi told a crowded breakfast Thursday morning that she hadn’t even seen the report.
Uber and other critics last summer charged that de Blasio would have killed thousands of new jobs with his plan to slow the company’s growth.
Michael Allegretti, senior manager for public policy at Uber, testified at a City Council Transportation Committee meeting that the mayor’s plan would low- and middle-income wage workers — the people he claimed he wanted to help.
Two council members pushed for bills at de Blasio’s behest, sources said then.
One called for a moratorium on the growth of new licenses for app-aided private car services, while the second called for a study on the impact Uber was having on traffic and the environment.