SACRAMENTO, California — Outside of reading materials, people can check out a variety of items at different branches of the Sacramento Public Library including cake pans, lawnmowers, and now, electric tricycles.
The e-trike program out of the Colonial Heights Library branch launched in August.
Cathy Crosthwaite, deputy director of Public Services at the Sacramento Public Library, says there's been a big demand since then.
The Colonial Heights Library has a fleet of five e-trikes available. To qualify to check them out, you need to be at least 18 years old with a library card in good standing.
However, it's not promised one will be available should you visit the library.
"We put them in what we call the "Lucky Day collection" because hey, if one's here, it's your lucky day, you can check it out. One of the things about having it in the "Lucky Day collection" is that you can't put it on hold and you can't renew it. But it is available for checkout for three weeks," said Crosthwaite.
Some people check them out for the whole three weeks, some people just want to try an e-trike.
"We want the library to be that neighborhood community spot where people know that they can go to a trusted space and try out new things — explore and discover some opportunities," said Crosthwaite.
The city of Sacramento and the library partnered to make this happen with funding from a California Energy Commission grant. Rachel Patten, a sustainability analyst for the city the Public Works Department says more than half of emissions within Sacramento are coming from the transportation sector.
She says the city council committed to carbon neutrality by 2045 a few years ago. This means trying to cut down the burning of gas in the city and introducing cleaner modes of transportation.
"Part of that is active transportation and expanding active transportation access throughout the city and making it easier to bike and walk around," said Patten.
She says the e-trike lending program is part of a greater electric vehicle blueprint strategy within the city to make clean mobility options accessible. In the future, they're working on increasing access to EV charging through the city.
"That’s part of why we launched this program and are exploring this funding is to make sure that folks throughout the city in every neighborhood — particularly our disadvantaged communities, have access to active transportation modes and electric bicycles," said Patten.
Both Patten and Crosthwaite are looking forward to the expansion of the program. Patten says they have thirty trikes total that will be expanded to other branches.
"We’re already in talks with the city to expand the collection at this library and were also looking at a couple of other branches. I don’t want to name them now but we're definitely in talks to do that because it is such a popular option," said Crosthwaite.
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