A new pilot program for affordable electric carsharing in some of Los Angeles’s poorest neighborhoods has kicked off today in Westlake, says a release from the Shared-Use Mobility Center, a national nonprofit that’s been working with the city on the project.
The program is operated by BlueCalifornia, a unit of the French company Bollorè Group, which runs carsharing programs in Paris and Indianapolis, Indiana.
LA’s pilot program is starting out with five cars at one site near Seventh and Bonnie Brae, but the program will grow to 100 electric cars at 40 stations across central LA before the end of the year.
Bollorè has also revealed a few specifics of the program:
- Membership in BlueLA will range from $0 to $10 per month, but membership fees will be waived for “early adopters.” Members can receive income-based discounts for as much as 80 percent of the full $10 cost.
- Member usage fees, which include the cost of insurance and parking, will be no more than $.20 per minute.
Future stations are planned for other parts of Westlake, as well as Downtown, MacArthur Park, Koreatown. All station locations were chosen they were within the top 10 percent of those identified both as having the lowest incomes and being the most vulnerable to pollution from traffic or industrial sources, KPCC reported.
The Shared-Use Mobility Center had previously predicted that the program would "recruit a minimum of 7,000 new carsharing users, who in turn are expected to sell or avoid purchasing 1,000 private vehicles, reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 2,150 metric tons of CO2."
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