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Tag Archive for: electric car

CalBike Statement on Governor’s Executive Order to Promote Clean Transportation

September 23, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Contact: Dave Snyder, 916-251-9433, dave@calbike.org

Governor’s Executive Order to Promote Clean Transportation Is Weak and Vague on the Most Important Strategies to Address the Climate Crisis

Sacramento, CA—Governor Gavin Newsom today released Executive Order N-79-20,  calling for reduced carbon pollution from the transportation sector. Cars and trucks account for nearly 40% of all greenhouse gases emitted in California. The order gives strong support to electric cars but fails to set goals for reducing dependence on automobiles. California needs much more if we are to have any hope of forestalling a severe climate crisis and worsening poverty. 

The first five of the order’s 12 clauses relate to converting gas-powered vehicles to electric. They set the goal of prohibiting the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035 and call for various other measures necessary to meet that goal. Other clauses refer to gradual reductions in oil extraction in California.

Only one clause calls for giving Californians better ways to get around than private electric cars. It requires the state’s transportation agencies to “identify near term actions and investment strategies to improve clean transportation.” The order specifies that those strategies should include “supporting bicycle, pedestrian, and micro-mobility options, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities in the State, by incorporating safe and accessible infrastructure into projects where appropriate.” This is too vague and weak at a time when bold action is called for.

Statement from CalBike

“We’ll never solve the climate crisis unless we also address the economic crisis, and we can’t do either without reducing our dependence on cars and trucks. California needs to replace gas-powered cars with electric ones, very quickly, but doing that alone is a recipe for total failure. We need to make it dramatically easier for people to walk, bike, and take transit to reduce greenhouse gases from the transportation sector and still provide affordable mobility, improve health, and create good jobs.” — Dave Snyder, Executive Director, CalBike

This executive order is an important first step for California toward finally taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, where we have made next to no progress toward California’s climate goals. 

Governor Newsom’s order provides specific direction to six state agencies to achieve the important and necessary goal of eliminating sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035. It calls for a just transition to a carbon-free transportation sector by emphasizing the creation of good jobs and the improvement of infrastructure in disadvantaged communities. 

However, the order is vague when it comes to the transition away from automobiles to public transit, walking, and biking. This transition is critical, especially for the state’s disadvantaged communities. Public investment in charging stations in disadvantaged communities will not serve the majority of households in these neighborhoods who cannot afford an electric car, even with a subsidy. Nor will such investment in electric cars serve the one-in-three households in low-income communities in the Bay Area, for example, who don’t even have a car.

Reducing the need for cars and trucks is paramount to the successful mitigation of climate change. Reducing car dependence reduces costs for the lowest-income Californians, improves health and safety for everyone, and creates more jobs than other transportation investments. 

The Governor’s order specifically calls out the need to support micro-mobility in disadvantaged communities. Expanding access to public transit by including shared bikes and scooters as part of public transit systems is the key to equitable mobility. CalBike’s work to create the Clean Mobility Options for Disadvantaged Communities program supports this expansion, but much more investment is needed. 

The Governor specifically called on three agencies to improve clean transportation: the California State Transportation Agency, the Department of Transportation, and the Transportation Commission. CalBike will work with all three to help define a future where Californians have clean transportation options beyond gridlocked freeways and expensive EVs. As the agencies ‘identify the near term actions” necessary to implement Governor’s order, CalBike will work to ensure they focus on making the improvements needed by those who would bike, walk, or take public transit if given the opportunity.

https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/44006449071_58830a130d_z.jpg 427 640 Kevin Claxton https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/calbike-logo.png Kevin Claxton2020-09-23 17:40:212020-09-23 17:41:20CalBike Statement on Governor’s Executive Order to Promote Clean Transportation

E-Bikes Deserve the Same Rebates as Electric Cars

January 28, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

When you buy an electric car in California, you get help from the state. Purchases of all-electric automobiles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids are eligible for a rebate of up to $7,000. If instead, you’d like to buy what is arguably the most climate friendly practical form of transit – an electric bike – you are on your own. In 2020, we hope to change that. One of CalBike’s top agenda items is to push for a rebate program for people who purchase electric bikes, because people deserve support for biking.

The case against electric cars

Are EVs better for the environment than cars that run on gasoline? Absolutely. They don’t spew carbon dioxide or harmful toxins in their exhaust. They use energy from the electrical grid which gets about a third of its power from renewable sources and a little more than half from sources that don’t emit carbon. That’s definitely an improvement, but it’s clear that even if every Californian traded in their gas guzzler for a zero emissions car today, it would not be enough to solve our climate crisis. Besides, EVs still cause dangerous pollution, from tire and brake particulate; they create congestion, cause traffic deaths, and take up precious space in our crowded cities.

And crucially, most of the fleet is a fantasy in the short term. Sales of electric cars in California rose by more than 60% between 2017 and 2018, but they still accounted for less than 8% of all new cars sold in the state. An even smaller fraction of existing cars are electric. Californians drive approximately 35,700,000 cars; about 35,300,000 of them are not zero-emission electric vehicles. It will be a long time before a substantial number of them are electric.

Experts agree, the only way to really tackle the environmental crisis caused by cars is to reduce the use of cars. We drove ourselves into this crisis; we can’t drive ourselves out of it.

Time is running out to address the climate crisis

There are several good ways to reduce the number of miles that people travel in solo vehicles. Near the top of the list is improved public transit, transit-oriented development in walkable neighborhoods, and, of course, bicycling. While new transit services and housing construction will take years to complete, the fastest and best way to get people out of their cars is the bicycle. It’s important to move fast: as the most recent IPCC report showed, we don’t have that long.

The case for electric bikes

Bicycles are a near-perfect form of transportation. They give riders physical exercise, take up little space on the street or for parking, and they are always zero emissions. But not everyone is willing or able to get around town by bike. Barriers include physical ability, feeling too vulnerable on the road, limited range, not wanting to arrive at work sweaty, and the need to transport kids/groceries/stuff.

The e-bike is a solution to all or most of these problems. The extra power extends the range of bike trips while making riders safer. Electric cargo bikes are ideal for family transportation. In fact, studies have shown that people with access to e-bikes use them to replace car trips about 50% of the time.

However, price is a significant barrier to e-bike adoption. Electric bikes often cost over $2,000 and cargo bikes can cost even more. While the price is a fraction of the cost of buying a car, it is still a barrier for many Californians.

A rebate program for e-bike purchases would cost a fraction of the EV program. And, unlike the car-centric program, an e-bike rebate would be a significant step toward climate progress for California.

The budget process

Any e-bike rebate program will be funded through the California budget process, which runs from January through June. Here’s a rundown on this year’s budget and the prospects for e-bike rebates.

On January 10, Governor Newsom released a $222B proposed budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The budget plan includes the allocation from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which includes incentives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As the budget takes shape, CalBike will lobby hard to get a bicycle purchase incentive program included in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund expenditures. We don’t expect this to be easy. We’ll need your support to get e-bike rebates into the 2020 budget. You can start by signing our e-bike rebate petition, to send a message to legislators that e-bikes deserve rebates, too.

The rest of the budget is critical, too. Transportation gets $18B including almost $9B for the California Department of Transportation. There is also $220M in funding for the Active Transportation Program (ATP). The ATP is the state’s only pot of funds dedicated to biking and walking. The ATP funding level is about the same as last year.

The next step is for the legislature to hold hearings on the budget before passing a budget bill. State agencies and departments will submit recommendations for adjustments to the Department of Finance. Newsom will consider these recommendations along with the latest data from the Department of Finance and produce a revised budget in May. The legislature must approve a budget for the governor’s signature by midnight on June 15.

During the budget process, CalBike will advocate for maximum public engagement and a minimum expansion of road capacity. California’s priorities must be to maintain what we have, make the streets safer, and, above all, reduce vehicle miles traveled.

https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/e-bike-single-man-cropped.jpg 200 544 Kevin Claxton https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/calbike-logo.png Kevin Claxton2020-01-28 14:54:402020-01-28 17:50:36E-Bikes Deserve the Same Rebates as Electric Cars

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