Since 2015, the City of Los Angeles (LA), in partnership with the LA Department of Transportation and the Mayor’s Office, has received a total of $4.7 million from CARB’s Clean Mobility Options program for a zero‑emission car share pilot project. This project, known as BlueLA, is operating in 13 underserved communities that face significant air quality burdens and have historically been excluded from environmental benefits. BlueLA provides a clean and affordable mobility option in these communities, which include Downtown, Pico Union, West Lake, and Koreatown.
The innovative carshare service launched to the public in April 2018 and has progressed to include 40 charging stations, with 200 charge points installed to date and over 100 electric vehicles. In phase 2 of the project, Blink Mobility, the carshare operator, is planning to expand the service to include 300 electric vehicles and 100 stations by the middle of 2025. As of October 2023, BlueLA has a total of 4,250+ users that have taken 635,000 total trips and driven over 21 million gasoline‑free miles throughout the Los Angeles area.
BlueLA Blink Mobility charging station and vehicle.
“The low cost of ownership was a driver in my final decision to go [electric].”
The BlueLA project is directed by a diverse steering committee consisting of members from six community-based organizations. Outreach agents known as Street Ambassadors have been hired from the targeted low-income communities to contribute to a face-to-face approach for creating awareness and excitement in local communities for electric vehicle car sharing. To ensure smooth implementation of the new car share program, BlueLA and the City of LA also put together the Tiger Team, a group of representatives of all city agencies, to install the charging stations.
“I grew up loving cars and technology, [electric vehicles] are the perfect combination of the two.”
The BlueLA project is making an impact. A recent study by UC Berkeley conducted a comprehensive evaluation of BlueLA’s impact on vehicle ownership patterns, vehicle miles travelled and GHG emissions by incorporating trip activity data from nearly 60,000 trips in 2021 and 2022, as well as 200+ survey responses collected from BlueLA members in December 2022. Survey respondents were asked if they had sold their vehicle or chosen not to purchase one due to BlueLA. They were also asked to estimate the total change in how many miles they have driven annually in their personal vehicle(s) as a result of having the BlueLA service available.
“Love it! Got all my errands done this morning-Home Depot, groceries, dry cleaning. So efficient and so clean.”
The study found that BlueLA has led to an overall net reduction in vehicles miles traveled by project participants of 463,845 miles and associated GHG emissions reductions of 656 MTCO2e, respectively, among the over 3,000 registered BlueLA users. The study also demonstrates greater reductions in GHG emissions and vehicle miles traveled from low‑income qualified residents, who used the service more frequently and had higher rates of selling personal combustion‑engine vehicles among users. This study provides new evidence for the benefits of electric vehicle carsharing services like BlueLA, which allow communities to address some of the social and environmental disparities of transportation in cities.