From the Chicago Dispatcher, February 2009
City Council Committee Approves Neighborhood Electric Vehicle
Plan would include testing electric vehicles as cabs in downtown area.
By: Jonathan Bullington
The future of Chicago taxicabs may include electric cars if the full City Council approves an ordinance passed in committee Wednesday, Feb. 4. The ordinance, approved by the Traffic Committee, would allow neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) to operate on streets that fall under the sole jurisdiction of the city and have a speed limit of 30 mph or less.
Part of this ordinance proposal would allow these NEVs to be used as taxicabs, provided they stay on streets meeting the above-mentioned criteria. If used as taxicabs, NEVs would be exempt from being required to service passengers in underserved areas and would be barred from servicing either Chicago airport.
According to Shellie Riedle, deputy commissioner of the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, planning has begun on a taxi pilot program for these NEVs, which would potentially seek five drivers to test NEVs for a period of up to nine months, during which time the city could collect and analyze data to determine the viability of using these vehicles as taxicabs.
The city currently owns five electric vehicles, which are used in the Dept. of Fleet Management, Dept. of Cultural Affairs and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. NEVs have all the main components of gasoline-powered vehicles - windows, doors, turn signals, etc. - yet are powered strictly by electricity and can be recharged by running an extension cord from the vehicle to any standard electrical socket. Riedle said her department has looked at electric cars manufactured by Miles Electric Vehicles, based in Santa Monica, CA.
If a pilot program is started, the city will look at two main categories when analyzing NEVs as taxicabs, according to Riedle. The first will look at passenger safety and comfort, as well as the vehicle's reliability and speed of charging. The other category will look at data collected from drivers, fares serviced with these vehicles, length of fares, maintenance costs, insurance costs, electricity costs while charging, etc. Riedle anticipated taking one-to-three months to analyze any data collected before making any final recommendation on using NEVs as taxicabs. If all goes well, owners would be able to purchase NEVs, but their use would not be mandatory, according to Riedle.
From the Chicago Dispatcher, February 2009
Reader Opinions
Thoughts on neighborhood electric vehicles
By: George Kasp
This ordinance, as it pertains to taxicabs, reminds me of the proverb: I am from the government and I am here to help you.
First off, all this “Where As” talk stating what government officials are going to do and why it is going to be done concerns me because it sounds like it is going to be done whether anybody has anything to say about it or not. As a citizen who owns and drives one taxicab, am I supposed to be convinced by all the “Where As” talk that the ordinance being considered is reasonable and just?
Neighborhood electric vehicle sounds so neighborly. This new plan for a neighborhood taxicab service has some appeal because it's so environmentally friendly. My deep concern is that once a so-called downtown area neighborhood taxi service is ordained, the next logical step might be to exclude all regular taxicabs out of the downtown service area. That would not be very neighborly and would effectively cripple the taxicab industry. Drivers have to make a living driving cabs and companies will be forced to buy these vehicles, which at this point are not commercially viable, all in the guise of reducing greenhouse gases, which at this time seems like the right thing to do.
Unfortunately the taxicab business always seems to be the first private industry to be used as guinea pigs in the city's experiments in reducing greenhouse gases.
