The approvals technically cover the whole of the Lower Mainland and the skiing destination of Whistler, BC, although that wider permission only allows for drop-offs. The companies only have permission to pick up passengers in Vancouver. Most other cities in the region (including Burnaby and Richmond) expect to offer licenses soon, though, with Surrey being the notable exception.

The city wasn’t in dire straits by going without ridesharing services. As Slate noted, Vancouver has thrived on mass transit as well as car sharing. It’s Car2Go’s biggest membership base in North America. With Car2Go on the way out in late February, however, there will be a significant vacuum that Uber and Lyft might fill. And whether city officials liked it or not, there was a lot of pressure to embrace ridesharing. It not only frustrated those tourists who expected app-based rides, but locals who had trouble getting taxis or public transportation after nights out. Whatever you think of these services, they might fill key gaps in Vancouver’s transportation network.

Clean Energy Canada policy director Dan Woynillowicz told CBC News in a statement: “This is going to go a long way toward addressing a problem we’ve had in British Columbia, which is we have more British Columbians interested in buying electric cars than we have electric cars on dealership lots.” He said there’s demand for zero-emission cars in the province, but there are typically very few stocks to test drive, much less to buy. That said, the law doesn’t guarantee that BC is going to be 100 percent emission-free by 2040: people could simply go to neighboring provinces to buy gas vehicles if they want.

While California’s EV sales are doing well, The Verge notes that BC’s ZEVA is the first location in North America to pass legislation that aims to ban the sale of gas-powered cars. The US has been lagging behind Europe when it comes to EV adoption for years, and a similar law could change that. Rep. Mike Levin from Southern California and Sen. Jeff Merkley from Oregon recently proposed a bill also called Zero-Emission Vehicles Act that would prohibit sales of gas-powered cars in the US by 2040, but so far, the odds aren’t looking good.