A Northside Youth and Senior Service Center (NSYSSC) driver assisting a senior in St. Louis, Missouri on May 25, 2021
All photos by Nick Schnelle for NRDC
If elderly or disabled St. Louis, Missouri residents need an elevator to a doctor’s appointment, computer class, grocery store, or other type of shopping spree, they can contact the Northside Youth and Senior Service Center (NSYSSC) before their lift Front door open. The non-profit organization run by Schwarz serves the city’s historic color districts and offers an average of 10,000 trips per year. Typically, the organization’s drivers arrive in large white vans, but starting this summer they’ll also be displayed in a blue, white, or black Chevy Bolt.
From above, an NSYSSC driver loading home meals for seniors at NSYSSC; Leon Threat, Executive Director of NSYSSC, and Shana Watson, Program Director of NSYSSC, in front of one of the current non-EV vans in the center.
“This is a unique opportunity to be part of something that will so radically change the way people move,” said Leon Threat, executive director of NSYSSC. The threat relates to a new initiative called SiLVERS that will roll out electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging stations through organizations like his in more areas of St. Louis.
Soon a contractor will install three charging stations in NSYSSC’s offices in the Ville neighborhood, and the group will receive three Chevy Bolts to provide their services to the community. Two more electric cars and the associated charging stations drive to the south side of the city to be used by another organization, City Seniors, based in the Bevo Mill district. If they are not occupied by the bolts, the stations in both areas are available for public use.
At nearly 260 miles per charge, the Bolt’s operating costs are lower and more consistent than a gas-powered vehicle, as are maintenance costs. All in all, this means that organizations can spend more time and money on their missions than on repairing their cars.
When St. Louis, Missouri’s new EV fleet and charging station was unveiled outside the St. Louis City Street Department on February 25, 2021, a city called St. Louis Chevy Bolt was hooked up
The St. Louis Equitable Electric Car Sharing Program – a collaboration between the city, utility Ameren, and several organizations including Forth, a nonprofit advocating smart and shared transportation – is one of several across the country that contribute to the production of electric vehicles. and the cleaner air they bring more accessible. The City of Denver subsidizes EV-Sharing memberships for key workers and underserved community members through a program called Colorado CarShare. In Boston, a program called Good2Go in Roxbury, the center of the city’s black community, offers a tiered pricing system based on a resident’s income. In Los Angeles, Income Memberships at BlueLA cost only $ 39 per year.
These efforts help ensure that “the benefits of these technologies don’t just go to people who can currently afford a Tesla,” said Kelly Blynn, NRDC’s electric vehicle technical strategist for the American Cities Climate Challenge – a partnership between Bloomberg Philanthropies, NRDC , Delivery Associates, and several other building and transportation emissions reduction organizations in 25 US cities. As they benefit drivers and their communities, the initiatives also pave the way for a more equitable EV revolution.
The move to electric cars is an important step in the fight against the climate crisis and a large part of President Biden’s plans to create jobs and get the country on track to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. To be successful, we need to electrify everything – replacing the country’s current fleet of combustion vehicles with electric cars, buses, and trucks, and most importantly, generating the electricity to run them from carbon-free sources like wind and sun.
Richmond Heights, Missouri City Councilor Maurice Muia and NRDC climate consultant in a Chevy Bolt at the unveiling of St. Louis, Missouri’s new EV fleet and charging station
Such a huge undertaking, of course, requires everyone to have access to these vehicles and the infrastructure necessary for a smooth rollout. To that end, Forth, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit advocating for electric transportation, began talking to NRDC’s St. Louis climate adviser Maurice Muia and community members last year about how to use it can best be triggered by electric vehicles in the city.
A few years ago, a group in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood started a similar project for their residents in retirement homes. These efforts provided a model of how a program could work in St. Louis. Last October, the groups decided to reach out to organizations that already provide transportation for community members and help them expand their services with electric vehicles.
“We don’t enforce a necessity,” says Muia. “It’s there in front of you.”
Before electric vehicles can really start in a city, there must be enough charging stations to keep them buzzing. Cities need to be careful, however, to place this infrastructure in low-income areas and color communities, where the benefits of lower fuel and maintenance costs – and less air pollution – can have a big impact on the quality of life. Getting to know residents with electric vehicles and driving comfortably could also encourage some people to one day buy their own – something manufacturers should be aware of so that they don’t just cater to the luxury auto market.
Pam Harris, executive director of the North Newstead Association, in her St. Louis, Missouri office, May 25, 2021
On a human level, Pam Harris, the executive director of the North Newstead Association, which advanced the St. Louis EV Project, says providing someone with a necessary ride has become even more important during a pandemic that has disproportionately threatened and isolated the elderly.
“When technology is offered, it is usually offered to young people, but in that particular aspect it is also offered to seniors,” says Harris. “We do not forget them. We don’t leave them in the background. We are actually moving them forward. “
Starting this summer, NSYSSC drivers will be transporting seniors in a Chevy Bolt. Here a senior comes to the NSYSSC for a computer class.
SiLVERS charging stations are slated to go online within a month, and the Bolts, which have been leased for three years, will start cruising in June if everything goes according to plan. Once people start driving, they can record testimonials of how they liked their EV experience for the groups to share on social media.
Seniors can show people “how we can all work together to improve the environment by using advanced technology with one ride at a time in an electric vehicle,” says Harris. Not only that, she continues: “You can show off. You can say, ‘Great-grandchildren, I drove in an electric vehicle! I am 83 years old! ‘”