Posted on 08/02/2015 2:29:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A first-of-its-kind car-sharing program will give residents of Los Angeles' neglected neighborhoods access to carbon-free transportation.
Electric vehicles have helped people save money and curb their greenhouse gas emissions. But for those with less cash to spare, those benefits have been largely out of reach.
Now a first-of-its-kind E.V. car-sharing program in Los Angeles aims to put the city’s low-income residents—some of whom have to walk a mile to the closest bus stop—behind the wheel of convenient and carbon-free transportation.
“It will help improve the lives of every Angeleno in these neighborhoods by offering them options they don’t have,” said Matt Petersen, Los Angeles’ chief sustainability officer. “The program will advance Los Angeles’ goals of clean air, use of mass transit, and increased access to mass transit.”
The $1.6 million state-funded program—which is part of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s sustainability plan, an ambitious effort that seeks to improve environmental health in the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods by 2025. Funding comes from the proceeds of California’s carbon cap-and-trade program.
The program, part of the state's Charge Ahead initiative, will put 80 to 100 electric cars on the road sometime next year and build electric vehicle charging stations in the working-class neighborhoods of Westlake, Pico Union, Boyle Heights, and Koreatown. By making the cars available for up to 7,000 drivers, it will eliminate the potential purchase of 1,000 gas-powered cars and 2,150 tons of CO2 emissions a year, Petersen said.
Anyone will be able to use the cars by paying a membership fee and hourly rates. Those who meet specific income requirements—still to be determined—will receive a discount. Carpoolers will also pay less than solo drivers.
The service wants to benefit Angelenos such as Rosa, a Mexican immigrant and Koreatown resident who walks a mile to take the bus for her daily trip to the grocery store, according to Brady Collins, the development associate for Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, a neighborhood nonprofit organization.
“Just a few months ago, Rosa showed me a notebook with about 1,000 signatures she collected,” Collins said. “She wanted to petition Metro to get a bus stop closer to where residents live.”
KIWA—which organizes campaigns for the benefit of the neighborhood’s predominantly Latino, Korean, Bangladeshi, and African American community—is one of the community groups advising the city on how to implement the car-sharing program.
Koreatown’s poverty rate is three times higher than the Los Angeles County average, and many residents rely on public transportation to take them to jobs across town, Collins said.
“For example, a number of Koreatown residents are domestic care workers and may need to get to Beverly Hills on the west side of L.A.,” he said. “In those situations, it could take an hour and a half to two hours on the bus, whereas in a car it could take 25 minutes.”
Though added access to a car may speed up resident commutes, Petersen believes that in many cases, residents will use the car-sharing program to get them to crosstown rapid transit bus lines more quickly.
“This gives them a lower-cost option to meet their needs in situations that can only be served through a vehicle,” he said. “It helps provide options for the last-mile and first-mile connections with mass transit.”
Note that none of the liberals in these “non-profit” groups ever volunteer to give her a ride or organize a car pool to help the residents with their chores. The solution is always some big government program headed by some politically connected hack.
City buses are built so they can power wash the p*ss off the floors after each day of use. These cars, probably not so easily.
Companies made electric cars to meet CAFE standards and get government subsidies. Very few people want hybrid or electric cars, given the high cost and low performance. So now they are literally giving them away, in the hope of good PR, points with the political elite and a tax write-off.
Just give um a bus pass. If it’s good enough for the working stiff that has to pay for this crap and can’t afford his own car. it’s good enough for the moochers.
I added a couple of Comments there just for fun.
This is payola for leftist investors sucking the government trough.
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