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."
- LA Officials Cut Ribbon on “BlueLA” Electric Carsharing Pilot Serving Disadvantaged Communities [SUMC]
- LA is bringing 100 electric carsharing vehicles to its poorest neighborhoods [Curbed LA]
Comments
This is gonna fail so so so hard
By stvrr on 06.09.17 11:59pm
Yeah, seems pretty tone deaf given the neighborhood.
By corner soul on 06.10.17 11:22am
Wow!! With the city so bent onu us getting out of cars and into bikes it looks like their getting back into cars again. Make up your friggin minds.. and these cars are on bus routes so their goes more bus ridership after giving away so many drivers licences to "illegals".. what a wacky city of angels!!
By beachwooddude on 06.10.17 12:15am
You don’t seem to understand that if a person wants to adopt public transportation, they often end up holding onto their cars for the once in a blue moon use that public transportation just won’t cut it for, such as buying/transporting a bulkier item, visiting a place that’s just not accessible to public transportation, etc.
This is an excellent way to reduce the total number of cars out there. If 10 people can share 1 car for that occasional use, it’s a very worthwhile effort and we need to expand the program 100x in size to make it extremely convenient and useful.
By goingup on 06.12.17 12:20pm
Unless they are rending suburbans that fit 10 kids I’m not sure how this is going to work.
By LADude on 06.12.17 11:21am