Considerations for Clean Cities and Communities Projects: Learning from Past DOE Investments

The following summaries draw out lessons learned and key considerations that could be leveraged by others pursuing similar projects. These lessons learned include best practices for engaging stakeholders, strategies for improving the equitable distribution of project benefits, site selection factors, and permitting/policy elements that could impact the project.

• Curbside EV Charging: To expand electric vehicle (EV) adoption, it is necessary to find and demonstrate solutions that enable people without home charging to charge their vehicle. Curbside charging, including chargers attached to streetlights or other poles, seeks to fill this gap by increasing the locations where consumers can charge their vehicles.

• EV Car Share: Car shares are short-term rentals that enable access to a vehicle for those without their own without the high cost of ownership. Establishing EV car shares reduces emissions and creates awareness of EV benefits in more communities. Car shares can also be used for gig drivers who use the EVs for ride hailing, food and meal delivery, and similar services.

• EV Charging for Multifamily Housing: Achieving a high level of transportation decarbonization requires EV adoption beyond just people with access to garages or other dedicated off-street parking that allow them to charge their EVs while at home. Residents of multifamily housing (apartment complexes, condominiums, etc.) are a critical target for expanding the potential market for EVs, and multifamily housing residents will be more likely to adopt EVs if charging solutions to fit their needs are available. Learn from DOE-funded projects that included innovative approaches to deploying EV chargers at multifamily housing, including implementing EV car share programs.

• EV Mobility Hubs: EV mobility hubs allow for charging multiple vehicles and other electrified transport modes such as electric buses or e-bikes. Funded projects developed strong local and regional partnerships to support increased use of EVs. Strong partnerships can efficiently cut through regulatory and market barriers to technology introduction.

• Rural Mobility: Achieving a high level of decarbonization relies on EVs and other clean transportation vehicles and infrastructure deployed beyond urban environments. Rural communities face different challenges than urban and suburban communities such as longer commutes, little or no public transportation, potential lower utilization of alternative fueling infrastructure, and limited county and local government staff available to dedicate time to clean transportation projects. Technical assistance projects can help mitigate these issues, and lessons learned were derived from multiple projects.