Sacramento will install free electric vehicle chargers and other zero-carbon transportation technologies in underserved areas of the city, helped by a $1.8 million grant from the state.
The city was awarded the grant by the California Energy Commission this month to advance the transition to zero-emission vehicles.
Sacramento is installing chargers and will be placing electric bikes in neighborhoods that have limited access to transportation “so that these existing communities are not left behind,” said Jennifer Venema, interim climate action lead for the city. “We want to bring more options to these communities and solve transportation problems with new options.”
The city will be installing Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations in 13 locations around the city at either branch libraries or community centers. The charging will be free to start with, though the city eventually will make the chargers pay for themselves.
The chargers will go into areas that have more limited access to public chargers than the core areas of Downtown and Midtown, she said. Some of the targeted neighborhoods include North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights, South Natomas, Oak Park, Meadowview and Lemon Hill.
The city is also developing an electric bike lending program through the library, but the details of how that will work have yet to be determined, Venema said. It will most likely be a checkout program and not a smartphone distributed network like Lime.
Even the shared bike and scooter programs tend to be concentrated in Downtown, Midtown and East Sacramento.
In 2019, Sacramento won a $200,000 grant to plan and prepare for the transition. This grant will be used to implement the plan and also for public outreach and education about zero-emission vehicles, Venema said. “We’re more focused on the people than the technology.”
This grant is in addition to the electric vehicle hub that is being developed on city property by a nonprofit group, Green Tech Education & Employment.
