One of the manufacturers of those low-speed electric cars — known as neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) – will be in Normal Monday evening to provide a demonstration of the vehicles in the city hall parking lot just prior to a Normal Town Council vote on whether to allow them on city streets.
The council meets at 7 p.m. at its regularly scheduled time. The NEV demonstration is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the circle drive at city hall. A representative from ParCar will do the demonstration and be available for questions.
The proposal to permit the vehicles in Normal first appeared on the council agenda back in mid February. Councilmembers raised a number of questions like how these cars would operate in traffic on streets around Illinois State University which plans to purchase them for on- and off-campus use.
The vehicles hit a top speed of 25 miles per hour. While they’re enclosed and have all the proper lights and safety equipment, my instincts told me there was no need to rush to judgment and that a manufacturer would be motivated to provide a demonstration for skeptics like myself. I expressed my concerns in a post on this blog.
I asked for this demonstration, and I appreciate the opportunity to see the cars before voting whether to approve them.
The proposed ordinance would permit the cars on streets with speed limits up to 35 miles per hour. They could not be driven by someone without a valid drivers license.
There are apparently 40,000 of these low speed vehicles with zero emissions on the roads today.
2 Comments
May 3, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I think everyone should be required to drive these around town! No more speeding tickets (except in school zones), less serious accidents (lower insurance rates?), fewer people running red lights (it would take too long to cross the intersection), no high-speed chases…
May 3, 2009 at 11:10 pm
As long as your scenario includes production of these vehicles at Mitsubishi Motors, I’ll go along with it, Elizabeth!