Low emission vehicles are making an impact on senior mobility

Northern Colorado Clean Cities showed the community members of Lafayette, Colorado how low emission vehicles can be relied upon to travel to fun, active events as well as local shops.

Northern Colorado Clean Cities (NCCC) loves to share information about alternative fuels and low emission vehicles, especially at a Colorado Rockies baseball game. Building upon the great success of NCCC’s Mobility-for-All Walk About Project, a micro-mobility project introduced at Josephine Commons (a senior and low income housing development in Lafayette, Colorado), where seniors walked and carpooled to local shops and appointments, Northern Colorado Clean Cities donated baseball tickets, compliments of the Colorado Rockies, for another Mobility-for-All project.

Where usually each community member would be picked up by private cars, NCCC’s Sheble McConnellogue was able to reduce the number of cars used by implementing a simple carpool system. NCCC was also able to connect the residents to Lyft, via the GoGoGrandparent app. Lyft provided low-emission vehicles to transport the community members around Lafayette and to events. Seniors found it easy to use the GoGoGrandparent app, a service that lets people use Lyft and Uber without a smartphone, with rides monitored by 24/7 operators and alerts for families. NCCC also brought together Boulder County’s Transportation Department and Josephine Commons’ staff to produce effective carpool signage and presentations on public transportation and other transportation resources in the community.

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NCCC hopes to continue to use innovations in transportation technology, like apps, to expand the micro-mobility project beyond the local shops to more active events around Colorado.

Many of the seniors would have never thought that they could have attended a Colorado Rockies game and other fun events. Public transportation was not designed with senior citizens in mind and is difficult to navigate, and a taxi or private car service would is often too expensive and less efficient. The carpool system, however, reduces emissions and increases the quality of life for this underserved community in Lafayette, Colorado.

Besides the greener and more senior-friendly effect the project had, there was also just plenty of excitement and happiness surrounding the experience of the Mobility-for-All:

• “Using zero emission public transportation made the game day even better!”
• “It was an educational opportunity to teach residents how to navigate public transit and about cleaner more efficient alternative fuels.”
• “The atmosphere and air was joyous and the clouds kept the sun away. All in all a great day for a baseball game”
• “I enjoyed the Rockies game tremendously, and thanks to the program, I was pleased with the easy ride.”

NCCC and Josephine Commons will continue to build on their Mobility-for-All partnership and expand the project to bring more members out to the next Colorado Rockies game!

For more news on how innovative transportation can impact mobility, click here to check out how this one transportation program is helping commuters in Middle Tennessee commute more efficiently.