As far as slower paced vehicles go, I would love to
see Neighborhood Electric Vehicles authorized for road
use in Minnesota off expressways and perhaps certain
high speed thoroughfares.
NEV's have a top speed of 35 mph or so and are made
for local trips. They are much cheaper to purchase
run and operate than most other vehicles with the same
carriage capacity and are zero emission
vehicles(though one could argue that depending on the
source of the electricity to power them)
There is already one NEV manufacturer in the state in
Princeton. The city could also become more EV
friendly including NEV's by providing the solar/wind
powered charging at parking meters as they do at
various locations in Portland, OR and other cities and
providing EV reserved parking spaces in the cities
ramps that include charging services.
It seems it would also make sense to provide NEV
rental to Metro Transit Users to get to and from
transit hubs in our suburban communities. NEV's could
cover the short distrance between the home and the
Transit Hub and be plugged in to charge under a solar
array and/or wind turbine/s as a local energy source
at the transit hub.
EV's suitable for expressway travel that have top
speeds of 85 or 90 mph and go zero to 60 quickly and
have suitable safety features are much more expensive
currently running as much as $80,000.
I can see these be part of a solution of getting
people out of their conventional cars for local trips
to the grocery store or other places where they might
be hauling more than they can carry on the bus or
their bike.
I can also see suburbanites being drawn by the
novelty, convenience, and savings of driving an NEV to
a transit hub and for local errands in the suburban
environments where the population is too dispersed to
support efficient metro transit options.
David Strand
Loring Park
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