Ride-hailing pioneer Uber, rather than being part of the solution to urban transport may be adding to related problems, especially pollution from diesel cars, a study showed yesterday. Transport & Environment, which groups NGOs in Europe to promote sustainable transport solutions, said Uber revolutionised the once heavily regulated taxi sector, attracting thousands of new Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) drivers. But this "stellar increase in Uber drivers has not been offset by a similar reduction in taxi licences... and Uber's appearance did not accelerate the reduction of car trips in London and Paris."

Instead, "the convenience of door-to-door, app-based trip booking makes travelling by (hired) cars in cities more and more popular, risking a reversal of a 15 year trend of reducing car trips in cities," the Brussels-based TE said in a summary of the study's findings. By the same token, "the uptake of ride-hailing services across EU cities also poses a risk to the fight against pollution and climate changing emissions."

Uber operations in London, Paris and Brussels likely pump out 525,000 tons of CO2 a year, equivalent to the emissions from 250,000 cars "which runs counter to the cities' ambitions to reduce their climate footprint.