Anyone waiting for a chance to apply for a $2,000 voucher towards the purchase of a new e-bike should have their chance on May 29. Last week, the California Air Resources Board announced that it has upgraded its infrastructure to handle the massive volume of requests for e-vouchers after it was forced to delay the second round of its voucher program that had been planned for April 29.
The application process for income-approved households hasn’t changed because of the delay. If you are interested in applying, you can visit the official website here or click here for the Streetsblog article explaining the process. There is some preparation work that needs to be done before the waiting room opens, so make sure to check out at least one of those links.
Potential applicants are asked to check-in at a virtual waiting room between 5 and 6 p.m. on May 29. Once applicants have entered the waiting room there is nothing else they have to do before 6 p.m. The lucky 1,000 will then be directed to the application page. Doubtless, some people will drop out before submitting an application. Those not directed out of the waiting room are encouraged to stay until they are either directed to an application or they receive notification that they have to wait for the next window.
Let’s be blunt. This program needs some good press. The program was first authorized in 2019 and funded in 2021. For years advocates wondered (and Streetsblog editors wrote articles wondering) what was taking the program so long to get off the ground. When it did finally launch, the flood of people that wanted a chance to earn the tickets overloaded the system, with roughly 100,000 applicants vying for 1,500 vouchers.
After the first round, some applicants claimed the website crashed during the process, thwarting their efforts. CARB staff denied this in a letter to Streetsblog, and thought the issue that they were experiencing was due to user error or browser selection. After the second round was delayed because of technical issues, one can’t help but wonder if the issues CARB experienced in April could have been avoided.
And this is to say nothing of the scandals (yes, there’s more than one) with the contractor for the project, Pedal Ahead.
If you're interested in the program but for whatever reason aren't able to be at a computer next week on the appointed day, or aren't one of the lucky 1,000 there is hope. There was $31 million initially allocated for the program, enough for roughly 15,000 vouchers. After this round, there will still be funding for roughly 12,500 more.
So here’s hoping that next Wednesday the application process goes off without a hitch. CARB expects the volume of applications to continue to far outstrip the number of vouchers made available.
