Big changes are coming to a small town in Illinois. The board members in Oak Park made the decision the ended on a 5-2 vote on Tuesday that would allow electric cars two hours of free parking and would give the owners free village parking stickers. It might not seems much but as the village manager Tom Barwin says, its “a very small impact, but is part of a larger effort the country should undertake to revitalize the auto industry and be a leader in electric vehicles.This new proposal will be effective for the next 2 years and the board can readdress the issue if there is any problems.
Even though it might same like a small step it are attracting good attention to their town. This proposal will encourage that residents to but electric cars but most importantly lure in car companies who offer electric cars that will support the town itself . If this proposal becomes successful Oak Park will decrease the amount of carbon dioxide that would be otherwise be put in the air and create some new development around the town. Construction will be needed for convenient location for recharge stations around town. One of the two people who denied the proposal, John Hedges, explained why he didn’t like the idea of subsidized parking for a select amount of people; “Being a progressive community I’m concerned about the regressive (nature) of this plan because what we are doing is for those people who can afford to buy electric vehicles, (we are having) everyone else in the community support your parking costs,”
The author of this article, Jim Jaworski, does rise a good argument. Even thought personally I believe that no new law is perfect Oak Park is heading towards a good direction even though it has some negative side affects. Like Tom Barwin said, it is a small step to help solve a big problem, it is those small steps that add up to make a big difference.
3 comments:
At least they are proving incentive for those who may be considering switching over to electric cars. Just like tax breaks for hybrid cars or solar panels to encourage people to be more environmentally friendly, it seems like a good enough idea.
I definitely agree. It's important for their to be a reward for those who are more "green". That's the way to get the biggest response.
I agree that providing some sort of an incentive for people switching to driving to electric cars is a good thing. Although incentives are always a good thing, I think that people need to want to change their ways in order to help our enviornment.
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