A new cab company in Tempe plans to improve the environment by driving in it.
Clean Air Cab will be Arizona’s first carbon-negative taxi service, meaning it removes more carbon dioxide from the environment than it emits into it, said Jorn P. Bates, the company’s chief eco coordinator.
The company is using fuel-efficient Toyota Priuses and purchasing carbon-offset credits to provide an eco-friendly cab service, he said.
Starting Oct. 19, 26 new Priuses will be cruising the streets of the Valley in Clean Air Cab’s new taxi fleet.
The founders of Clean Air Cab chose the hybrid car because it’s fuel-efficient, Bates said.
“When you think of taxi cabs, you think of the [Ford] Crown Victoria,” Bates said. “The Crown Victoria gets about 17 miles per gallon, [but the Prius] gets … 50 miles per gallon.”
Clean Air Cab is working with programs that will neutralize the carbon their cars produce.
“Typically we’ll be planting trees, which take carbon dioxide in and put out oxygen,” Bates said.
The company will work with Trees for Tempe to plant trees locally, and with Trees for the Future to plant trees globally.
“We’re planting 260 trees for the month of October, and we’re going to plant 10 trees per month per car for every month thereafter,” Bates said. “At the growth rate that we’ve planned ? about 200 cabs ? we’ll have planted over 23,000 trees [in three years].”
Clean Air Cab will also buy carbon-offset credits.
Buying one credit is equal to neutralizing one metric ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The company is looking at using carbonfund.org as its provider.
“We’re going to be carbon negative, and we’re going to do this at a price that’s less than the top three cab companies in Phoenix,” Bates said.
“We want to make going green easy and affordable,” Bates said, adding that green services tend to cost more.
Clean Air Cab will charge a $2.50 base fee and an additional $1.90 per mile.
Journalism freshman Jessica Mayer said she rides the light rail often but feels safer in cabs.
“The light rail is nice but it gets shady at night, especially for young college girls,” Mayer said. “I’ve had a lot of homeless guys hit on me.
When you’re alone, it’s even scarier. It’s safer to take a cab.”
Clean Air Cab will have a monitor in each cab that works as a global
positioning system, entertainment center and credit-card processor.
“We did a survey on the market here. Safe feeling in a cab was the No. 1 thing that people wanted to see,” Bates said.
ASU students who are of legal drinking age could benefit from Clean Air Cab’s Free Ride Back program, Bates said.
Clients can call a cab to take them home, and in the morning, call back and a cab will pick them up at their house and bring them back to their car.
“You do have to pay to get home at night, but the morning trip will be free,” he said.
Brittany Bennett, Clean Air Cab’s marketing manager, said the company will celebrate its start with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 20 in Mesa.
Reach the reporter at kkfrost@asu.edu.
