Local Municipalities using Prius

Well up here in Bowling Green, Ohio, the local police department is using these electric vehicles:

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In fact, they are almost the exact same paint scheme except with police and traffic markings on them...

 

Here in Santa Clara California, the local government uses Prius for most non-emergency cars. City inspectors, etc., all travel in white Gen 1 or Gen 2 Priuses.

 

Arlington County (VA) uses several Priuses for parking enforcement, etc. I have come to assume all white Priuses are the county's. Very cool if you ask me.

 

In NY, DOT (department of transportation) uses A LOT of Prii. I almost always see two Prii at the block that I pass by. And I saw couple of Gen I and Gen II Prii on the Belt Parkyway with DOT logos. I remember seeing Rav4 EV once too on the Belt.

 

The City of Seattle has lots. Mayor Nickels is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and greening the City fleet. There's even one of the new 2006 light green cars in the motorpool!

 

To my knowledge, Erie County, Pennsylvania has 0.

However, the City of Erie has (or did have....I haven't seen many the last couple of springs/summers) a few bicycle cops patroling the downtown area.

 

i already posted an article about the city of olympia and its use of Priuses. we share our overflow parking with the WA state dept of health. there is about a dozen gen 3 Priuses there, all state cars (license plates give them away)

a few years ago, the state passed this mandate that all state sponsored fleets must pursue alternative fuel vehicles if one exists that will fit the use desired.

that includes all school districts, transportation boards, etc. being in the state capital, we have HUNDREDS if not thousands of Prius vehicles with exempt plates running around here. so, basic passenger transportation vehicles are almost all exclusively Priuses. sure we also have a few CNG, bio-disesels, EV's diesel-electrics (buses mostly) and even a few ethanol ones. (havent seen one in at least a few years so dont really know what is going on with that)


the city of olympia has not made any official laws requiring hybrids, but the cost of fuel has made each city dept request hybrids as well. since 2000 when the city first started using Priuses, they have reduced their gas bill by 15 %. considering gas is more than double the cost now, the savings is very significant. the city first started using hybrids because of a citizen requests, many from state workers who had the chance to use a Prius at work.

so you see, familiarity breeds conservation