20060523 KDDC OC eyes use of electric minicars

OC eyes use of electric mini-cars

This is interesting. This just in from an:

Article published May 23, 2006 in the Salisbury Delmarva Daily Times.
OC eyes use of electric mini-cars
By Jay Hodgkins, Staff Writer

OCEAN CITY -- Presenters for a 100 percent electric, zero emission, lightweight DaimlerChrysler vehicle showed up at last week's Police Commission meeting, and Mayor Jim Mathias' eyes lit up.

After Mathias took the doorless four-seat Global Electric Motorcar -- a vehicle that passes all federal safety regulations to be driven on roads 35 mph and less -- for a spin with Town Councilmen Jay Hancock and Jim Hall, he brimmed at the possible uses for the town.

"It's timely in nature because of all the gas price problems and energy rates. It really does fit in, and it's something for the future of this town," Mathias said. "I hope (City Manager Dennis Dare) can look at it."

CleanCities.com President Luis MacDonald and Daniel MacDonald presented options of the vehicle that ranged from two-seat to six-seat models that had a range of 35 to 40 miles, could be recharged in a regular outlet at home within a few hours and could carry a 1,200 pound payload in the back bed area.

The vehicle was recently approved for use on Maryland roads by the Maryland General Assembly and the city of Baltimore is already using the vehicles in the Inner Harbor area, MacDonald said.

For Ocean City, the men pitched their initial intention to start business operations with condo associations and other private groups to shuttle members from their homes across Coastal Highway to the beach.

Police commission members, however, discussed a much wider range of uses from hotels renting the vehicles to vacationers to use by the police force around the Boardwalk or use by town officials and maintenance people.

Police were not as excited about the GEMs, however, as Ofc. Hugh Bean cited safety issues because of the light vehicle weight, people driving the vehicle on high-speed roads and a likelihood operators wouldn't use their seat belts in the golf cart-like vehicles.

"Trying to get people to understand what they can and can't do would be an insurmountable feat, and we'd be the bad guys for busting people," Bean said.

Chief Bernadette DiPino also said she saw too much trouble to support wide commercial use of the vehicles or town use, but admitted the vehicles were legal and anyone could purchase and drive the $8,000-to-$12,000 vehicles provided they follow the rules.

Looking for a wider vision for the vehicles, Mathias told police, "I hope as we pursue this we can pursue it with a can-do attitude and not a can't-do attitude."

"I'm not advocating we do this overnight," he said, "but paying attention to where the world is going, this is somewhere we want to go."

About the cars

 Ocean City was shown options of a vehicle that ranges from two-seat to six-seat models that can drive 35 to 40 miles, can be charged in a regular outlet and can carry up to 1,200 pounds. The vehicles pass federal safety regulations to be driven on roads 35 mph and less.

 The Maryland General Assembly recently approved their use in the state. Similar vehicles are already used by the city of Baltimore in the Inner Harbor area.

 Reach Jay Hodgkins at 410-213-9442 or jhodgkins@smgpo.gannett.com.