Gas prices got you down? How about a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, or NEV? At Wednesday’s board meeting for the Amador County Recreation Agency, or ACRA, the Amador Transit Project gave a presentation on the benefits of the NEV, a small, completely electric vehicle that comes in a variety of models.  NEVs can travel up to 25 miles per hour on roadways with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less.  Additionally, they can cross major highways and can travel on special roadways called Quiet Alternative Transit Lanes, or QATLs, that would also accommodate pedestrian, bike, and Segway traffic. According to Bob Devlin and Sharon Hewitt of the Amador Transit Project, Amador County is perfect for QATLs because we already have a large amount of accessible open land. Amador Road and the Old Sutter Creek-Amador City Highway were brought up as possible QATL routes.

The project also refers to 155 acres of Oro De Amador open space that was just deeded to the City of Jackson – land that ties together commercial and residential areas, and would be perfect for a QATL network.  In fact, the project, with help from a 25,000-dollar grant from the Amador Air Resources Board, is in the process of mapping out areas that could be used for these alternative transit lanes.  The project also claims that the use of NEVs will reduce traffic on our roads, lessen air pollution, and decrease our dependence on foreign oil. Also, these vehicles will be significantly less expensive to purchase.  Devlin cites several disadvantages to the use of NEVs, including the transfer of some transportation funds to the Instruction of alternative transit lanes, and the need to change existing transportation planning to incorporate NEVs and QATLs.  The Amador Transit Project plans to have a website up and running soon.

For now, you can obtain more information by emailing them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..