How Many Ride-Share Drivers Are Hiding Status From Insurers?

A Lyft vehicle on the streets of San Francisco. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)

In November we reported on the widespread confusion over insurance for ride-share drivers who work for companies such as Lyft, Sidecar and UberX. These companies use smartphone apps to connect ordinary car owners with those seeking a ride. The growing industry has given the taxi industry fits, siphoning off both customers and drivers. In San Francisco, where it has long been notoriously hard to find a cab, the transportation network companies, or TNCs for short, have stepped in to fill the gap.

One downside for both passengers and riders, however, is uncertainty over insurance coverage if a TNC driver gets into an accident, as several have in the past few weeks. Here’s what we found:

• Ride-service companies like Lyft and Sidecar say drivers’ personal insurance policies will cover some claims. But the insurance industry says the policies won’t provide any coverage.
• The insurance industry says ride-service drivers will have to buy commercial insurance to be covered when they’re driving for hire and maybe even when they’re not.
• At least some ride-service drivers are keeping their status secret from their insurance companies because they’re afraid of losing coverage.

These issues might take on increasing urgency as more and more drivers sign up and accidents occur. A  Lyft driver was involved in an accident in San Francisco on Friday, and an UberX driverstruck and killed a 6-year-old girl on New Year’s Eve.

One question we posed in the past: Are ride-service drivers at risk of losing their insurance?

Last week on the Lyft Lounge, a Facebook meeting area for drivers, one member posted a cancellation notice she received from Geico. The termination  was for “commercial use of your 2012 Toyota Prius.” The posting has sparked a long online discussion among Lyft drivers. Wrote one fellow Lyft driver in response:

“No one, I mean no one told me my insurance would have a problem with it. What’s Lyft’s response to the fact that serving for them may end up with us losing insurance and possibly our livelihood?”

Last year, journalist Josh Wolf, writing for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, reported on a similar cancellation of a Lyft driver’s insurance.

Lyft has not gotten back to us with a response.

Keeping TNC Status a Secret

Because of the fear over such cancellations, at least some ride-service drivers have kept their status a secret from their insurance companies. Several Lyft drivers we spoke to previously said they did not want their names used for this reason.

“I have heard about people being denied coverage because it was discovered they were driving for Lyft, and therefore their personal insurance policy would not be renewed, or canceled,” Lyft driver Dan told us.

Said another driver: “I don’t think I should let my insurance company know because I’ll probably get dropped.”

And another: “I figure the less they know the better.”

I spoke Monday to yet another Lyft driver about the issue, and again he would talk only on the condition of anonymity out of fear of having his insurance canceled. This driver said he noted one bit of advice on the Lyft Lounge recently: If you get into an accident, end your ride immediately and turn off your app, so you cannot be identified as a ride-service driver.

‘No one, I mean no one told me my insurance would have a problem with it.’

He also said he displays the famous pink mustache that identifies Lyft vehicles only when picking up a passenger, then throws it in the back seat, against both Lyft rules and state regulations. He does this to lessen the risk of being identified as a TNC driver and also because he does not want to get hassled by taxi drivers.

There does seem to be a distinct feeling among some TNC drivers that it is bad practice to go public with your professional driver status. On the Reddit Uber Drivers subgroup, someone recently put up a post titled: “Do not mention your work as an Uber Driver on any social media. Good way to get coverage denied in the case of an accident.”

Can You Get Insurance for TNC Work?

Under rules adopted last September, the California Public Utilities Commission requires ride-service companies to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance for their drivers. But it remains unclear just when that insurance is in effect.

Graham Archer, the attorney for Syed Muzaffar, the UberX driver involved in the fatal accident on New Year’s Eve, says his client had driven to San Francisco with the express intent of serving UberX users and had already completed one trip.

But although Muzaffar was logged in and awaiting another customer, he wasn’t on a call at the moment of the accident, so UberX does not consider him covered under its policy.

The companies’ commercial insurance won’t cover the personal use of a TNC vehicle — for instance, when a driver is running personal errands or going on a road trip. There is a real question as to whether ride-service drivers can obtain personal insurance if they tell insurance companies the true nature of their intended use of the vehicle. During my reporting last year, I contacted the American Automobile Association and Allstate to see if they’d insure me for the personal use of my car if I also wanted to use it for transporting paying passengers as a TNC. Both said they wouldn’t.

“If they discover that your car’s being used that way, then that’s going to raise the red flag for any claim,” an Allstate broker told me. “Tracking if accidents have occurred involving such vehicles is difficult, as the insurer will not always have the knowledge that the passenger paid for transport.”

The recent experiences of two taxi drivers who wanted to switch to UberX also shows how hard it is for TNC drivers to get insurance coverage. Each uses Uber Taxi, a service that connects passengers with regular cabs. Each said they considered driving for UberX after learning Uber offers financing for that service’s drivers to buy new vehicles. But each said their plans hit a roadblock when they found they couldn’t get insurance for the new cars.

One of those drivers was John Han, who drives for Yellow Cab in San Francisco.

“I couldn’t find anybody who would insure an UberX vehicle,” he says. “When I talked to my personal insurance company, I was trying to be very honest. I said I had just been approved for a car loan but wanted to work for UberX. They said they can’t insure that.”

Han says he was referred to a company that provides limousine insurance, but the broker said she couldn’t find anyone to cover an UberX vehicle.

“You can’t really insure a car as both a personal vehicle and commercial at the same time,” says Han, who has written about taxi issues for his own blog. “Someone might create that kind of package. But it doesn’t exist now. The insurance industry is under no obligation to insure something just because the CPUC says it’s OK.”

“The only way I can do UberX would be to lie to my insurance company. I didn’t want to do it that way.”

‘You can see my dilemma. It seems to me the only way to comply with Uber by getting personal insurance would be to misrepresent my use of the vehicle.’

Bill Clark drives for Luxor Cab and was also ready to try driving for UberX. He says he was part of a group of about 25 cab drivers that Uber was encouraging to convert to its ride-service platform. He says he was turned down for insurance when he tried to buy a new car for his planned UberX work.

“I went to Geico, filled out an application and told them I was going to transport people,” he says. “The application was declined as ‘undesirable.’”

Like Han, he then tried to get commercial insurance, going through a broker, and couldn’t find anyone to insure a TNC vehicle. “They had never heard of TNCs,” he said.

No Answer to Request for Advice

Clark then emailed the following to a contact at Uber complaining that he couldn’t obtain insurance:

I would like to discuss some concerns that have come up in researching the insurance for TNCs. According to the law the requirements to operate a TNC vehicle are: The California PUC requires personal insurance from the driver and excess liability insurance from the TNC (UBER). However when I applied for personal insurance from Geico and I truthfully represented the use of the vehicle, they declined, stating that my use was commercial. It also seems they do not offer the type of commercial insurance I would need.

You can see my dilemma. It seems to me the only way to comply with Uber by getting personal insurance would be to misrepresent my use of the vehicle, which I do not feel comfortable with. My conclusion from this indicates that if there were claims against a TNC driver and the insurance company found out that the true use of the vehicle was falsified, they would deny coverage.

The Uber rep told Clark he would see what he could do. Clark then wrote a followup email saying he was still excited about working for Uber, but that the insurance matter needed to be resolved.

He says he never got any answers and he now assumes the  other cab drivers in his group who obtained insurance for TNC work told insurance companies their new cars were for personal use.

Musing about his quest to leave the taxi business, Clark says, “I could get a brand-new Prius, drive any time I wanted to, and just make money. That’s like a dream; too good to be true. In fact, it was too good to be true. You can’t get insurance on them.”

Obviously, many people are obtaining insurance on vehicles for TNC use. But it’s unclear how many insurers, if any, know about the insured’s ride-service work and would balk at coverage if they found out. Almost all personal insurance policies contain an exclusion for commercial use of  vehicles.

“Many insurers don’t know their customers are involved in these kinds of program,” says Pete Moraga of the Insurance Information Network of California. “If these drivers aren’t telling their insurers, there’s no way for them to know.”

Meanwhile, the California Department of Insurance has issued a warning to TNC drivers about possible gaps in insurance coverage.

I sent Uber a number of questions about insurance, including one asking the company if it could name any personal insurers who were willing to insure a TNC vehicle. The company would not answer any of those questions on the record.

Update Jan 22: Uber now tells us it did respond to Clark in a phone conversation. Clark, however, says that while an Uber rep did call him, he merely listened to Clark’s concerns, saying he would get back to him with a response. But Clark never heard back with any answers.

Update 2: Kara Cross, general counsel for the Personal Insurance Federation of California, an industry group made up of State Farm, Farmers’, Progressive, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, and Mercury, contacted us with some insurance implications for TNC passengers.

Cross says that if you are injured as a result of riding in a TNC vehicle, you can draw on the $1 million-per-incident coverage TNCs are required to have, but only if the TNC driver is judged to be at fault. If the other vehicle is judged to be at fault, you will have to rely on that driver’s insurance, which will very likely cover a much lower amount than $1 million if it is a private vehicle.

Explore: Lyft, ride-sharing, TNCs, Uber, UberX

Category: Business and Finance, San Francisco, Transportation

Color This New Solar Cell Efficiency Breakthrough Blue

If you had to pick the best color for solar cell efficiency off the top of your head, yellow – as in sunlight – would probably get the nod. However, there is a lot of efficiency to be mined in the blue end of the spectrum. The problem is, blue light has excess energy that conventional solar cell materials can’t capture efficiently, and away it goes in the form of heat.

That makes finding a cheap, blue light-friendly solar cell material one of the keys to kicking solar cell efficiency up to the next level while keeping costs down, and researchers over at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin believe they have found just such a one.

Blue light by bigpresh.

Harvesting Blue Light For Solar Cell Efficiency

The material in question is copper indium selenide (CIS), which is a close cousin of CIGS (a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium) the go-to material for thin film solar cells.

The thin film angle is important to solar cell affordability because, although thin film is not as efficient as the gold standard (that would be silicon), it is far more inexpensive to manufacture and it has a greater range of applications.

The new Argonne solar cell research pivots on the manufacturing process to harvest more light from the blue end of the spectrum.

To deposit thin films of CIS, the researchers used a fabrication method called phonic curing. In photonic curing, you heat and cool the top layer of a material in less than a second. Aside from binding the materials, photonic curing also vaporizes organic molecules.

Once the organic molecules are out of the way, that leaves the field clear for multiple exciton generation, and thus greater efficiency in blue light conversion (in other words, one high-energy photon is stimulating multiple excitons, instead of just one exciton per photon).

Before you get too excited about all those excitons bouncing around, researcher Brian Korgel of the University of Texas cautions that the labwork looks promising, but it’s the relationship between manufacturing and multiple exciton generation that will make the technology competitive in the marketplace:

The holy grail of our research is not necessarily to boost efficiencies as high as they can theoretically go, but rather to combine increases in efficiency to the kind of large-scale roll-to-roll printing or processing technologies that will help us drive down costs.

The cost of solar power is already sinking like a stone and apparently it hasn’t nearly hit bottom yet.

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Tags: Argonne National Laboratory, cigs, CIS, Solar Cell Efficiency

About the Author

Tina Casey Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. You can also follow her on Twitter @TinaMCaseyand Google+.

Welcome to San Francisco, the other America

Welcome to San Francisco, the other America

Considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world, San Francisco is known as the most European of American cities . Recognized for its architecture , its mild climate, its cultural attractions , diversity and originality of its neighborhoods , its gastronomy worldwide reputation , its past is picturesque , especially with the gold rush in 1849 which made ​​her go into one night the size of a small village to a metropolis. " If you come to San Francisco, be sure to put some flowers in your hair ," said the fashionable song in Hippies years. If the Hippy movement , born in San Francisco, now belongs to the past , the city has preserved a special charm, a kind of aura which differs from all other American cities , which makes it one of the most loved cities USA . Its elegant architecture already requires the town's many Victorian homes, the famous " Painted Ladies ". Walking through the streets of San Francisco, is evolving in a theater . As picturesque " cable cars ", these old trams that climb tirelessly street vertiginous slopes, they have been declared a National Monument ! San Francisco attracts tourists from around the world , with a high proportion of French and even Alcatraz island is forever associated with the memory of the famous gangster Al Capone , this city is now recognized as a symbol of freedom and tolerance , which is called "the spirit of San Francisco ." D. Roz Practice : Images and Cultures of the World " San Francisco, another America " film conference René Figari . Tuesday, January 14 at 15 am at St. Paul - The gateway Massy- Information and reservations at the Tourist Office tel. 05 46 02 70 39 , www.meschers.com

Three Myths on the World's Poor

By almost any measure, the world is better off now than it has ever been before. Extreme poverty has been cut in half over the past 25 years, child mortality is plunging, and many countries that had long relied on foreign aid are now self-sufficient.

Our Developing World

By almost any measure, write Bill and Melinda Gates, the world is better off now than ever before, in part thanks to foreign aid. By 2035, they predict there will be almost no poor countries left in the world. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

So why do so many people seem to think things are getting worse? Much of the reason is that all too many people are in the grip of three deeply damaging myths about global poverty and development. Don't get taken in by them.

MYTH ONE: Poor countries are doomed to stay poor.

They're really not. Incomes and other measures of human welfare are rising almost everywhere—including Africa.

Take Mexico City, for instance. In 1987, when we first visited, most homes lacked running water, and we often saw people trekking on foot to fill up water jugs. It reminded us of rural Africa. The guy who ran Microsoft'sMSFT -1.38% Mexico City office would send his kids back to the U.S. for checkups to make sure the smog wasn't making them sick.

Today, Mexico City is mind-blowingly different, boasting high-rise buildings, cleaner air, new roads and modern bridges. You still find pockets of poverty, but when we visit now, we think, "Wow—most people here are middle-class. What a miracle." You can see a similar transformation in Nairobi, New Delhi, Shanghai and many more cities around the world.

In our lifetimes, the global picture of poverty has been completely redrawn. Per-person incomes in Turkey and Chile are where the U.S. was in 1960. Malaysia is nearly there. So is Gabon. Since 1960, China's real income per person has gone up eightfold. India's has quadrupled, Brazil's has almost quintupled, and tiny Botswana, with shrewd management of its mineral resources, has seen a 30-fold increase. A new class of middle-income nations that barely existed 50 years ago now includes more than half the world's population.

And yes, this holds true even in Africa. Income per person in Africa has climbed by two-thirds since 1998—from just over $1,300 then to nearly $2,200 today. Seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies of the past half-decade are in Africa.

Here's our prediction: By 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world. Yes, a few unhappy countries will be held back by war, political realities (such as North Korea) or geography (such as landlocked states in central Africa). But every country in South America, Asia and Central America (except perhaps Haiti) and most in coastal Africa will have become middle-income nations. More than 70% of countries will have a higher per-person income than China does today.

MYTH TWO: Foreign aid is a big waste.

Actually, it is a phenomenal investment. Foreign aid doesn't just save lives; it also lays the groundwork for lasting, long-term economic progress.

Many people think that foreign aid is a large part of the budgets of rich countries. When pollsters ask Americans what share of the budget goes to aid, the most common response is "25%." In fact, it is less than 1%. (Even Norway, the most generous nation in the world, spends less than 3%.) The U.S. government spends more than twice as much on farm subsidies as on international health aid. It spends more than 60 times as much on the military.

One common complaint about foreign aid is that some of it gets wasted on corruption—and of course, some of it does. But the horror stories you hear—where aid just helps a dictator build new palaces—mostly come from a time when aid was designed to win allies for the Cold War rather than to improve people's lives.

The problem today is much smaller. Small-scale corruption, like a government official who puts in for phony travel expenses, is an inefficiency that amounts to a tax on aid. We should try to reduce it, but we can't eliminate it, any more than we can eliminate waste from every government program—or from every business, for that matter. Suppose small-scale corruption amounts to a 2% tax on the cost of saving a life. We should try to cut that. But if we can't, should we stop trying to save those lives?

We've heard plenty of people calling to shut down aid programs if one dollar of corruption is found. But four of the past seven governors of Illinois went to prison for corruption, and no one is demanding that Illinois's schools be shut down or its highways closed.

We also hear critics complain that aid keeps countries dependent on outsiders' generosity. But this argument focuses only on the most difficult remaining cases still struggling to be self-sufficient. Here is a quick list of former major aid recipients that have grown so much that they receive hardly any aid today: Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Thailand, Mauritius, Botswana, Morocco, Singapore and Malaysia.

Aid also drives improvements in health, agriculture and infrastructure that correlate strongly with long-run growth. A baby born in 1960 had an 18% chance of dying before her fifth birthday. For a child born today, it is less than 5%. In 2035, it will be 1.6%. We can't think of any other 75-year improvement in human welfare that would even come close. A waste? Hardly.

MYTH THREE: Saving lives leads to overpopulation.

Going back at least to Thomas Malthus in 1798, people have worried about doomsday scenarios in which food supply can't keep up with population growth. This kind of thinking has gotten the world in a lot of trouble. Anxiety about the size of the world population has a dangerous tendency to override concern for the human beings who make up that population.

Letting children die now so they don't starve later isn't just heartless. It also doesn't work, thank goodness.

It may be counterintuitive, but the countries with the most death have among the fastest-growing populations in the world. This is because the women in these countries tend to have the most births too.

When more children survive, parents decide to have smaller families. Consider Thailand. Around 1960, child mortality started going down. Then around 1970, after the government invested in a strong family planning program, birthrates started to drop. In the course of just two decades, Thai women went from having six children on average to having just two. Today, child mortality in Thailand is almost as low as it is in the U.S., and Thai women have an average of 1.6 children. This pattern of falling death rates followed by falling birthrates applies for the vast majority the world.

Saving lives doesn't lead to overpopulation. Just the opposite. Creating societies where people enjoy basic health, relative prosperity, fundamental equality and access to contraceptives is the only way to a sustainable world.

More people, especially political leaders, need to know about the misconceptions behind these myths. The fact is, whether you look at the issue as an individual or a government, contributions to promote international health and development offer an astonishing return. We all have the chance to create a world where extreme poverty is the exception rather than the rule.

—This piece is adapted from the forthcoming annual letter of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of which the authors are co-chairs. Mr. Gates is the chairman of Microsoft.

Kenya to generate over half of its electricity through solar power by 2016

Masinga hydroelectric power plant. Kenya gets most of its power from hydroelectricity, but there are hopes solar will contribute more. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

Kenya has identified nine sites to build solar power plants that could provide more than half the country's electricity by 2016.

Construction of the plants, expected to cost $1.2bn (£73m), is set to begin this year and initial design stages are almost complete. The partnership between government and private companies will see the state contributing about 50% of the cost.

Cliff Owiti, a senior administrator at the Kenya Renewable EnergyAssociation, said the move will protect the environment and bring down electricity costs. "We hope that when the entire project is completed by 2016, more than 50% of Kenya's energy production will consist of solar. Already we are witnessing solar investments in Kenya such as a factory that was opened here in 2011 that manufactures solar energy panels."

He said that over $500m had already been invested in solar projects in Kenya. "The costs related with hydro electricity are very high, considering they are influenced by the low water levels in major supply dams. With high investments in solar, we will witness almost no blackouts and power charges will reduce because electricity will be in high supply."

Germano Mwabu, an economics professor at the University of Nairobi, said the solar plan could have a dramatic impact on energy prices. "When the project is complete and solar is in good use, electricity costs could go down by as much as 80%."

The country is also planning the construction of what will be sub-Saharan Africa's largest windfarm, near Lake Turkana, which is set to be operational by 2015.

Kenya ranks 22nd in Africa for the amount of electricity it generates, and 46th in the world in the generation of solar energy. But it could rank third for solar in the next four years, according to figures from the Energy Regulatory Commission, a government agency.

Netanyahu says if Rouhani agrees to recognize Israel, he would consider meeting him

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may not meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week, but if Tehran says it is willing to recognize Israel, Netanyahu might consider a meeting.

"If Rouhani said 'we recognize the Jewish state. We, Iran, are prepared to have peace with Israel, Israel would be here forever,' well that would peak my interest, in Davos or anywhere else," Netanyahu told Canadian CTV News on Thursday, when asked whether or not he would be willing to meet with the Iranian president.

Ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to Israel next week, Netanyahu also addressed criticism against his staunch vocal support of Israel, saying the critics are "out of sync" with the region.

The premier asserted that the Middle East is undergoing change in which "many of the Arab countries see Israel not as an enemy, but as a friend," despite the fact many don't say so openly.

"When Canada says 'Israel is our friend,' they're not necessarily alienating the Arabs, quite the contrary," the prime minister said.

Inviting Harper's critics to the Middle East to see the changing tides, Netanyahu said many in the Arab world understand Israel is in league with them against the possibility of a nuclear Iran, as well as against a recent wave of Islamic radicalism that has swept the region with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Discussing the peace talks with the Palestinians, Netanyahu insisted that "nobody wants peace more than Israel, because we've suffered the brunt of wars, and the war between wars which is terror. We pray for peace, we yearn for peace, we work for peace."

He decried the fact that the Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, while Israel is willing to recognize a Palestinian state that would exist alongside the Jewish state.

Netanyahu also stressed the importance of maintaining Israel's security in any future accord.

"The last thing we want to do is just walk out and have them use that Palestinian state to attack what remains of Israel. I think this is the pivot of that debate," he said.

"We live in such proximity to one another, we could always continue the conflict - or try to end it. I want to end it. But I want to end the conflict, I don't want to perpetuate it under other terms. I don't want to give the Palestinians better lives from which to attack us. I want to say, 'go ahead, you have your state. But you've got to recognize the Jewish state,'" Netanyahu added.

The premier expressed confidence the issue of settlement construction, for which Israel suffered condemnation worldwide, will be resolved in the negotiations.

"For 47 years, between 1920 and 1967, we were attacked from the territories when we weren't there. There were no settlements, there were no soldiers there, and yet we were attacked for nearly half a century," he said, stressing that the issue remains the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

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Norway ranks top three in world aid table

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Norway spent a total of 0.93 percent of its Gross National Income (GNI) in 2012. This amounts to some USD 4.8 billion.

The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) praised Norway and its ongoing commitment to aid. They stated that its economic growth could lead to an increase in aid in future.

“Norway focuses on global issues that are important for the country and for the international role it plays, such as peace-building, climate change and global health,” said Vice DAC Chair Ana Paula Fernandes in a statement.                                               

“This enables Norway to punch above its weight on the global stage, and we commend Norway’s commitment to leading the way in these critical and challenging areas,” she continued.                              

However, the report revealed that almost half the funds set aside for climate and forest initiatives had remained unspent. This was due to problems within partner countries, or because of the lack of analysis on whether projects are feasible before they are launched.

The DAC also pointed out that Norway was focused on reducing poverty, but their projects aimed at energy and the environment mean the aid amount given to the least-developed countries has decreased slightly.

Several recommendations for Norway to improve its process of providing aid are listed in the DAC’s report.

These include suggestions that white papers should set out policies for its aid, and to continue its improvement of cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation).

Rintaro Tamaki, OECD Deputy Secretary-General, presented the Peer Review to Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende in Oslo, Monday.

“We appreciate the positive feedback, but the most important thing is that we take note of the recommended areas for improvement, and make constructive use of the OECD’s recommendations,” the Foreign Minister said.

“Norway provides substantial amounts of aid and will continue to do so, but the report tells us that this is not enough. It is not just the volume of aid that counts; it is also the effect of the aid and the results it gives.”

“We must become more adept at clearly specifying expected results, and at carrying out systematic evaluations. It is essential that we follow up the aid we give properly if we are to achieve the best possible results,” concluded Foreign Minister Brende.

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Are electric cars the way of the future?

This work represents exactly the research needed to build a sustainable future. The advantages and disadvantages of electric cars are fully reported, leading to the conclusion that the specific vehicles tested do not seem suitable for journeys far outside the city. They work well for shorter journeys inside the urban area.

The pros of increasing the visibility of electric cars are extolled: Less pollution, more business opportunities, and less fossil fuel dependency. Reduced urban noise can be important too, as long as provisions are made for visually impaired people crossing the road.

People riding the electric taxis might also think of buying an electric car for themselves, according to the report. That might not be what we want.

The electric taxis are, quite rightly, powered by electricity generated from local, renewable sources. Could local, renewable electricity supplies cope with everyone buying an electric car and using it extensively?

The answer might be yes if the majority use their vehicles during the day and charge them overnight.Electric vehicles can assist in better distributing how we use electricity over the 24-hour cycle.

Yet the perception of the vehicles being environmentally friendly encourages increased use of private transport. I have often heard owners state "I'm driving a short distance, but it's ok, it's electric". Rather than sharing one car per family, every individual might be encouraged to purchase one.

Roads still require maintenance, congestion adds costs in terms of people's time, and parking places require excessive amounts of space--even underground or multi-storey car parks.

We need to continue investigating and promoting electric vehicles, while being straightforward about the positives and the negatives. For true sustainability, we must also research how we can convince people to rely less on private transport.

Ilan Kelman is a Reader in Risk, Resilienceand Global Health at University College London and a Senior Research Fellow at NUPI in Oslo. He does not own a private vehicle