一项新的研究发现，与其他类型的私人和公共交通相比，共享拼车服务造成的污染要大得多。研究发现，搭便车出行使乘客远离了更为环保的出行方式，例如公共交通，步行或骑自行车。

A new study has found that ride-sharing services result in much more pollution than other kinds of private and public transportation.

 

Ride-sharing trips also draw passengers away from more environment friendly methods of travel, like public transportation, walking or biking, the study found.

 

Several studies in recent years have suggested that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft can worsen traffic problems in cities, which continue to have high rates of private vehicle ownership¹.

 

The new study, carried out by the not-for-profit group Union of Concerned Scientists, represents an attempt to center on how ride-sharing services affect pollution. The research examined the effects of ride-sharing services on seven of America’s largest cities.

 

Overall², the researchers reported that ride-sharing trips now “result in an estimated³ 69 percent more climate pollution on average than the trips they displace⁴.” The study notes that the same passengers could have chosen to travel by bus, train, bike, scooter or on foot.

 

One of the big reasons they give for this result is that ride-sharing vehicles are often driven with no passengers in the car. This happens when drivers are either waiting for rider requests, are on the way to pick up passengers or are driving in between pickups.

 

This situation, known as “deadheading,” takes up about 42 percent of all ride-sharing driving activity, the study found. The researchers said that deadheading results in about 50 percent more carbon dioxide than one person driving in a private vehicle.

 

Both Uber and Lyft do offer a choice of a “pooled” ride, which involves drivers picking up additional⁵ riders during the same trip.

 

The study urges services like Uber and Lyft to work to increase the amount of pooled rides. It also urges the two companies to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road and to improve connections to public transportation centers.

 

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