Fairfax County, Virginia, received more than $50 million as part of a federal grant to buy new hybrid buses.
"A lot of times, we're serving areas – we'll call them disadvantaged areas – and they have the greatest impact with what happens with air pollution,” said Tom Reynolds, of the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. “They are in denser areas. So, if we're running through those areas and we are contributing to emissions, that's not good."
The grant’s for hybrid buses instead of electric vehicles because the infrastructure’s not there, yet.
They need chargers in bus facilities, and that's not where it needs to be.
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The county said it’s going to be working on that.
"But in the meantime, we'll have these low emission vehicles to help reduce our fleet emissions," Reynolds said.
Meanwhile, Maryland received more than $12 million in federal funding to expand electric vehicle charging stations across the state – 130 fast chargers at 23 sites.
Transportation
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EV owner Cedric Smith said that goes a long way when it comes to easing fears about charging vehicles over long distances.
"The long distance is a thing,” he said. “You've got to be very methodical about how you are going to go those long distances right when you are traveling. You've got to be a little more strategic because you are not just going to pop up and get gas and go somewhere."
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