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from an industry that has
quickly risen to overtake
taxis, in large part by avoid-
ing regulation to begin with.
There are more than
600,000 ride-hail vehicles in
California, and they contrib-
ute about 50% more green-
house gas emissions per pas-
senger mile traveled than an
average car statewide, ac-
cording to an analysis re-
leased by air quality officials
in December.
The Union of Concerned
Scientists study, however,
concluded that ride hailing
is even worse for the climate
than air quality officials
found. That’s because riders
aren’t only taking Uber or
Lyft instead of their own pri-
vate vehicles, they’re taking
them when they otherwise
would have used lower-car-
bon options such as public
transit, biking or walking.
When you factor in dis-
placement of cleaner trans-
portation, a typical ride-hail
trip is about 70% more pol-
luting than the average trip
it replaces, the group’s anal-
ysis found.
Ride-hail companies
have the ability to reduce
their emissions by providing
subsidies to help drivers buy
or lease electric cars, for ex-
ample. But Uber and Lyft
are already under pressure
from investors to stem hefty
losses that have raised ques-
tions about their business
model. If they convert
quickly to electric cars, it
could drive up costs for hail-
ing a ride — a prospect that
worries some customers.
“Uber’s not going to pay.
So they’ll pass it down to us,”
said Mukaila Kazeem, 36, of
Long Beach, who occa-
sionally uses Uber or Lyft to
get to the airport or concerts
at the Hollywood Bowl.
“There’s no way to regulate,
or fix this, without someone
paying more.”
The move to regulate ride
hailing is a result of Senate
Bill 1014, the 2018 law that re-
quires California regulators
to impose rules to reduce the
industry’s greenhouse gas
emissions.
“We’re trying to be lead-
ers in stopping the climate
crisis,” said state Sen. Nancy
Skinner (D-Berkeley), who

authored the legislation.

“Having these convenient

cars belching out fossil-fuel

fumes is not helping us.”

Skinner’s bill was initially

drafted with a statewide

goal of transitioning the

ride-hail fleet to 100% zero-

emission vehicles by 2029,

but that language was re-

moved by state lawmakers.

That leaves it to state regu-

lators to formulate the tar-

gets.

That’s OK because it pro-

vides flexibility, Skinner

said. “Maybe the original

goal they set for ride-hailing

companies is lower than I

had in mind, but if they in-

crease it over time, will still

achieve the objective.”

The Air Resources

Board’s emissions esti-

mates, based on detailed,

confidential data Lyft and

Uber provided under the

law, showed the 640,000 ride-

hail vehicles operating in

California in 2018 released

only a small fraction of the

state’s carbon emissions, ac-

counting for about 1% of ve-

hicle miles and greenhouse

gas emissions from light-

duty vehicles.

Regulators said they are

nonetheless concerned

about increased pollution

from an industry that has

grown exponentially since

Uber introduced the service

in 2010. Less than 1% of the

miles traveled are electric, or

zero emission, the air

board’s analysis found.

The Air Resources Board

staff plans to bring the rules

to the 16-member panel

toward the end of this year.

Starting in 2023, the state

would begin imposing in-

creasingly stringent pollu-

tion standards, along with

the requirement that the

number of miles driven in

electric vehicles grow over

time. The approach will also

include measures to encour-

age better integration with

public transit and increased

use of pooled rides — two

strategies that experts say

can push carbon emissions

from ride-hail trips lower

than private cars.

“This is a really ground-

breaking regulation,” Air

Resources Board Chair

Mary Nichols said at a public

meeting in January. “And it’s

part of our multi-pronged

strategy to reduce emissions

from passenger transporta-

tion.”

Slashing transportation

pollution remains one of Cal-

ifornia’s most vexing climate

challenges. The sector is the

state’s largest source of

planet-warming emissions,

accounting for about 40% of

the statewide total, and and

that output has been rising

the last few years. Passenger

vehicles make up the bulk,

contributing about 28% of

the state’s total greenhouse

gas emissions.

Even with growing num-

bers of electric vehicles, Cali-

fornia will not reach its goal

of cutting greenhouse gases

40% below 1990 levels by 2030

without reducing vehicle

miles traveled.

Environmental groups

such as the Natural Re-

sources Defense Council

and the Sierra Club are urg-

ing the Air Resources Board

to draft ride-hail rules that

achieve the same goal ini-

tially sought in the legisla-

tion, including a target that

achieves 100% electrification

by 2030.

At the January hearing,

Austin Heyworth, Uber’s

senior manager of public

policy for California, said the

company supports the regu-

lation.

“We remain a small por-

tion of [vehicle miles trav-

eled] and light-duty emis-

sions, but we’re up to the

challenge, as an industry, of

having this applied to us

first,” Heyworth said.

Lyft spokeswoman

Campbell Matthews said in

a statement that the com-

pany “is striving to make ev-

ery ride 100% electric over

time” and is also encourag-

ing use of shared rides and

public transit in conjunction

with ride hailing.

Nicole Moore, a health-

care worker who lives in the

San Gabriel Valley and

works about 20 hours a week

driving her plug-in hybrid

for Lyft, said low occupancy

is a big obstacle to increas-

ing driver earnings and eas-

ing pollution.

“There’s nights where I

drive down a busy boulevard

in L.A. and more than three-

quarters of the cars have

Uber or Lyft stickers on

them. I’ve counted them,”

Moore said. The result, she

added, is congestion, carbon

emissions and drivers “not

able to make a good living.”

Moore is a member of the

organizing committee of Los

Angeles-based Rideshare

Drivers United, which is ad-

vocating for restrictions on

the industry, including emis-

sions standards and caps on

the number of new vehicles

joining the fleet.

“We’re lucky if we have

40% occupancy, so that

means 60% of the time our

app is on we don’t have any-

body in the car,” Moore said.

She said she wants to be part

of the solution, “but as driv-

ers we have almost no con-

trol over what’s happening.

... The responsibility for this

rests with the companies.”

Research since about

2016 has shown that ride

hailing is fueling some of the

increase in driving and con-

gestion, most notably in

busy urban centers.

An analysis of six U.S.

metro areas last year by the

consulting firm Fehr &

Peers, commissioned by

Uber and Lyft, found that

while ride hailing makes up

only about 2% of miles driv-

en overall, that percentage

can be much higher in the ur-

ban core. In San Francisco,

the analysis found that

about 13% of vehicle miles

were generated by Uber and

Lyft.

Taxis also log a lot of

deadheading miles, but they

have long faced an array of

local and environmental re-

strictions. In Los Angeles,

they are are subject to mod-

el-year restrictions that bar

older, more polluting vehi-

cles.

And starting in July,

L.A.’s Department of Trans-

portation will prohibit solely

gas-powered taxis from join-

ing the fleet, allowing only

clean-air models like hy-

brids or electric cars.

In California, ride-hail

services are under the juris-

diction of the state Public

Utilities Commission, and

local governments are

barred from regulating

them.

In recent comments, Los

Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti

has said the city has some

power to regulate ride-hail

companies and is looking at

ways to force them to use

electric vehicles.

“The mayor’s office is al-

ready at the table with ride-

hailing companies like Uber

and Lyft, as well as charging

providers, to work on electri-

fying ride-hailing vehicles,

and we’re advocating for

regulatory reforms at the

state level,” Harrison Woll-

man, a spokesman for

Garcetti, said in an email.

Other U.S. cities have

moved to address the traffic

impacts of Uber and Lyft.

Chicago imposed a tax on

trips downtown to encour-

age pooled rides and public

transit, and New York has

capped the number of ride-

hail vehicles in an effort to

ease congestion.

“Ours is the first one that

is an environmental per-

formance metric,” said

Joshua Cunningham, chief

of the state Air Resources

Board’s Advanced Clean

Cars Branch. “We think that

this approach is more com-

prehensive.”

Washington state could

follow suit. A bill in that

state’s Legislature would

launch similar programs to

cut carbon emissions from

ride hailing.

There are some indica-

tions that the industry’s pol-

lution could be dialed back

without too much difficulty.

The state’s analysis shows

vehicles in the ride-hailing

fleet, as a whole, are already

more efficient than the

statewide average, with a

higher percentage of newer,

more fuel-efficient cars and

hybrids.

When Uber and Lyft trips

are pooled, made in electric

vehicles or combined with

public transit, their carbon

emissions dip below that of

typical private vehicle trips,

according to the Union of

Concerned Scientists.

That means the biggest

benefit would come from

electrification and increas-

ing pooled rides, said Anair

of the Union of Concerned

Scientists.

He commended the ride-

hail companies for launch-

ing some pilot projects

aimed at getting more elec-

tric vehicles into their fleet,

but says such initiatives

have not been done on

nearly a large enough scale.

“To get on track, it’s really

going to take a concerted ef-

fort and investment,” Anair

said.

The true cost of an Uber or Lyft ride

[Ride hailing,from A1]

KRISTINE VALENZUELAexits an Uber at L.A.’s Union Station. California is working to reduce the climate impacts of ride hailing.

Francine OrrLos Angeles Times

Non-pooled ride-hailing

Private vehicle

Pooled ride-hailing

Bus

Rail

Greenhouse gas emissions

684

464

456

314

103

Union of Concerned Scientists. Emissions per trip-mile in g CO2e Los Angeles Times

Ride hailing can pollute more than driving yourself

‘We’re trying to

be leaders in

stopping the

climate crisis.

Having these

convenient cars

belching out fossil

fuel fumes is not

helping us.’

— State Sen. Nancy

Skinner

(D-Berkeley),

author of SB 1014