EVLN(?Ford recently sold its interest in Think Citys?)
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--- {EVangel}
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/24/01/motion-ulin.php
Waiting For The Hovercraft
For 40 years, since the demise of the Red Cars, public
transportation in Southern California has seemed somehow
incomplete. Sure, you can travel by bus or subway, but how,
in a region built for solo drivers, do you get from your
stop to where you really want to go? One answer may be
taking shape in Long Beach, where a nonprofit organization
called Bikestation has set up shop on First Street, about
half a block from the terminus of the Blue Line. Bikestation
offers California�s first Clean Mobility Center, a
vehicle-sharing alternative featuring storage lockers,
electric bikes and scooters, and a fleet of five electric,
two- seat Flexcars that commuters can use to go beyond the
end of the Metro line.
My son Noah, who�s nearly 8, knows all about the Metro; he
and I have been using it for years. For $2.70 a person, it�s
the cheapest entertainment in the city, and often, we�ll
spend a few hours riding just for fun, rocking to the fluid
ricochet of wheels against the tracks. But Bikestation is a
way to expand the system, a chance to try new transportation
options, including an electric car. Both of us think this is
very cool, so we pick a Saturday, and after a simple online
sign-up (www.bikestation.com), join Bikestation�s City
Wheels program, which allows us to reserve a Flexcar for the
day. Then, we head for the Wilshire/Western Metro station,
and take the Red Line to Seventh and Flower, where we
transfer to the Blue Line, and settle in for the long ride
south.
On the way to Long Beach, we talk about the future, try to
imagine what we�re going to see. Noah, a veteran of subways
from New York to San Francisco, has a utopian point of view.
"In the future," he says, "I think the train is going to go
everywhere, not just to that subway station in Los Angeles
or the trolley to Long Beach. I think it�s going to go on
every road."
"How would that work?" I ask, as the train rolls by the
Watts Towers, which glint like the wreckage of a prehistoric
spacecraft in the sun.
"I think it�s going to be like a hovercraft, and it won�t
have any doors. And the stations will be attached to the
subway so each subway has its own station, and it knows
where to stop."
"A hovercraft? If it was a hovercraft, it wouldn�t need a
track."
"Yeah," Noah�s eyes light up, and his mouth curls into a
grin.
"What about electric cars?" I say. "Would they use them
anymore?"
"Well, there�d be stations," Noah says. "It�s not like the
hovercraft could just go anywhere."
Stations or no stations, the hovercrafts exist only in
Noah�s imagination, so, for the moment anyway, electric cars
will have to do. And do they will, as we learn when we
arrive in Long Beach and pick up our ride. The Flexcar, a
"Think City" electric vehicle, is a two- seater, small and
boxy � gray matte plastic on the outside, like an
abbreviated VW Bug. Ford recently sold its interest in the
manufacture and sale of these cars, citing low consumer
demand, but for our purposes � a short commute � the car is
just right: On the road, it handles smoothly, accelerating
with a fine electric hum. Since we�re in Long Beach, we
decide to visit the Queen Mary, and on the short drive to
the Queensway, we get the Flexcar up to 55 miles an hour,
its maximum speed. For Noah, the best part is sitting in the
front seat � that and the space-age gear shift, which sits
like a giant light switch in the middle of the dash.
After a few hours at the Queen Mary, we return the Flexcar
to Bikestation, then take the Blue Line back to L.A. We�re
exhilarated, both at what we�ve done � taken a substantial
day trip without burning auto fuel � and at the vision it
offers of mass transit�s future here. We�re hoping for a Los
Angeles we can navigate in a different way, without getting
in a car. "I think," Noah says, "that people should use the
subway more because it�s cooler. It saves a lot of energy,
money and the environment. I want to tell them it�s the best
thing to do."
�Noah Ulin and David L. Ulin
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'@----- @'---(=
. http://geocities.com/brucedp
. EV List Editor & RE newswires
. (originator of the above EV ascci art)
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