Don’t let BlueIndy EV charging infrastructure go to waste
The clean electric vehicle (EV) revolution is underway across the country. In 2019, Indianapolis recognized that the transition to EVs is essential to the city’s transportation vision when it adopted a plan to triple EV ownership by 2025 (from the 2017 baseline of 760 vehicles). The BlueIndy EV charging network offers a key component to meeting this goal in an equitable manner by providing public, affordable EV charging in easily accessible locations around the city.
But now, city officials are considering a proposal to remove the charging stations and convert the spaces back to street parking spots.
The taxpayer-funded charging stations and the associated infrastructure throughout Indianapolis are a valuable resource that the city should build upon as a key part of our transportation future. As EVs become more common and parking around key destinations becomes more scarce, EV chargers will help to stimulate economic activity by encouraging more people, businesses, and institutions to purchase EVs, and by supporting EV owners from in and around Indianapolis to park, charge, and frequent nearby businesses.
Instead of squandering tax-payer investments in our transportation infrastructure, we call on city leaders to:
- Preserve at least 50 charging locations with at least 3 chargers available at each location.
- Upgrade the level 2 charging hardware at each location and pursue options for ensuring maintenance and upkeep of the upgraded chargers.
- Make EV charging at all locations free at the point of service for all drivers so that EV charging will be available in an equitable manner.
- Obtain funding for charging infrastructure improvements from the Indiana Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Program RFP.
- Develop an “Adopt-a-Charger” program to build partnerships with local businesses who will benefit from Level 2 EV chargers located near their place of business.
Indianapolis should be building an affordable, sustainable, and equitable transportation policy, which must include EVs. We cannot let the past investments in the BlueIndy charging infrastructure go to waste.