 This is St. Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Aloha, y'all. Having just spent Christmas in Texas, I had to add the y'all in there. So, my name is Mitch Ewan. I'm with the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, but I'm also the host of Hawaii, the State of Clean Energy, which is a program sponsored by the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum. I'm very pleased to have Lauren Reichelt, internal combustion engines and hot cars and all that kind of stuff, and now they're being asked to, you know, switch over to EVs. Is there a big cultural shift required for them to be accepting of that? Or is there enough business? Are they getting enough business in it that, you know, it's good for them to be doing that? What's been your experience? I think that it depends on the person, so it definitely isn't second nature. They're so used to selling a certain type of car that there's a different mentality that goes into selling an electric vehicle. You have to think about, especially early adopters, they're a different type of consumer. They come very well-prepared with their own research being done. They might even be testing the sales associate to see how much knowledge they really have themselves. And they just, you know, I don't even think it's a culture. I think it's just a lack of information, and so we're trying to break down that barrier by being sure that they have all the tools necessary and the resources at their fingertips when they, for example, don't know the answer to a question. They know exactly where they can find the answer. And honestly, you know, you talk about like these hot cars and these cars that they're used to selling, but EVs are cool. I mean, the technology is cool, and so a lot of these sales guys actually come in and they get really excited about it and they appreciate the opportunity to learn about something new and sort of take ownership over that. And once they sign up, they receive the curriculum online. They can study it on their own time, leading into the half-day workshop. So we do a presentation to the participants that kind of goes over the curriculum and then some additional information as well about maybe the charging network on Big Island, if it's a Big Island dealership, things like that, adding in pieces that are really relevant and pertinent to them. And then we do a hands-on component where they give a mock test drive to some fake customers that we bring with us. And then they sit down and they take the test. And so in three hours, everyone's finished. And so far, we have 41 electric vehicle experts in the state. And they're dispersed throughout 11 dealerships on three different islands. So how receptive are the dealerships themselves to this program? The ones that we've worked with have been pretty receptive. We don't charge anything for the program. So I think that helps. And I mean, there are certainly going to be some that are more receptive than others, especially ones that have EVs that are a big seller at the moment. Some manufacturers aren't sending electric vehicles to the state. And so there are certain dealerships that are obviously not receptive or not interested at the stage, because they don't have any cars to sell. Right. Yeah. So what about the mechanics and the maintainers? Yeah, it's their program for them because you know, you come in and you might find batteries not working or whatever. Yeah, I mean, the dealerships themselves can handle some of those mechanics, but as far as training programs to retrain the workforce, I don't know of any programs on Island, aside from there are I believe like at Hawaii Community College, for example, they have an alternative fuel vehicle course. So some of the community colleges are taking up that burden, I think. But as far as people who are already gas technicians or gas car technicians, they'd have to go take advantage of some opportunity to retrain themselves. So do they see this as a threat to their livelihood? Or are they, you know, what's been the reception from the mechanical and mechanic side? I wouldn't want to speak for them because I haven't spoken to too many of them. But yeah, I mean, that's a concern whenever there's a new green technology coming online is is being sure that there are green jobs and that people have opportunity to access them. And so that's something that we need to figure out as a state how we retrain our workforce for this this clean energy future and clean transportation future. So what about working with first responders because you know, you get in an accident in your electric vehicle tips upside down and you see all these wires and batteries and all this kind of stuff. Do you work? I mean, I've run training courses on hydrogen with first responders and hydrogen cars, essentially an electric vehicle. And you know, part of that training for the first responders is what wires do you cut and which ones, you know, which ones are hot? Yeah, is that is that something that you would is in place now? Or is that something that you not that I'm aware of? Yeah, no, I am not familiar with anything that exists currently. I'm not sure if the city is taking that on as far as training their own staff, especially with the city's goals for clean transportation and how they're integrating that I'm not entirely sure. Okay. Yeah. So maybe there's an area that you guys can look at. Yeah, I don't know that they're looking into disaster, disaster recovery and first responders. Integrating that with with alternative fuel vehicles and trying to figure out how that all fits together, especially in the coming years. And so I'm sure that'll be a piece of it when they're developing those. So do a lot of these cars have power export or export power units on them? I think not yet. They are developing it. But it isn't here yet. It's not yet in America from what I've heard they're doing pilots though. And they're starting I think they're looking at bringing them to the state. So hopefully soon, and then it can be used much more effectively as battery storage and backup power and creating some stability for the grid. I like to put it before we go to break. I just like to put in a little plug. I just brought in my first hydrogen bus. And we did install a 10 kilowatt power export unit or export power unit gives 110 to 20 volt AC for 30 hours. And then you can recharge the bus with more hydrogen in about 15 minutes. So you can start looking at your bus fleet as a mobile backup power for civil defense. So on that happy note, I had to get my hydrogen in there, which is an electric vehicle. Let's cut to our break and we'll continue on after a break. So thank you. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Hello, my name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii live from the studios. I'll bring you guests. I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe, your co workers safe, your family safe, to keep our community safe. We want to teach you about those things in our industry that, you know, maybe a little outside of your experience. So please join me because security matters. Okay, it's Mitch Ewan here with Lauren right now from Blue Planet. And she's a transportation sustainable transportation lady. And so we had an interesting conversation before the break on export, you know, EV expert certification program. Now I want to talk about some of your other programs. So first of all, one that's on my mind is the beaky, the beaky system that we have in town. It's like pretty neat. I've seen the vehicle all the bikes down by where I live down in Waikiki. And so you have any comments or can you give us any insight on how that program is going? Yeah, so before the break, we talked a lot about electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles. And that's really a technology change. The other piece of a sustainable transportation system is the equivalent of energy efficiency in the electricity sector. So using less. So that's going to be vehicle miles, traveled reduction, VMT reduction. And we do that through a mode shift. So changing the mode under which or through which people move. So more biking, more walking, really planning our cities in a way that people can get can get around without driving their individual cars all over the place, public transit, things like that. So beaky and bike share programs in general are really great way for people to access that bike ability without having to own their own bicycle or test out how biking might fit into their life before they decide to purchase their own vehicle. I mean, their own bicycle, not a vehicle. But yeah, so bike share has been around for about a year and a half and it's doing great. They last I heard were like the seventh most utilized bike share program in the country after their first year. So they've had an explosive sort of entry. I know you know, there was the question of whether or not it would be used, how would people warm to it? And it seems to have done it to continue to do very, very well. And a lot of those people are actually residents as well. When you when they look at the zip codes that are being used to log in a lot of residents, like 60 or 70% residents. So what about opposition to beaky? So some of their locations. So I know I live, you know, in Waikiki up at the top of Capulani Park. And I understand that the local, you know, community association is against having beakies in our neighborhood, which kind of disappoints me to be understated. And so what's the latest on that? Are we able to get some of these bike stands, you know, spread out up into the diamondhead area? They did just do an expansion on some level, they've moved moved into some of the neighborhoods, I believe in Waikiki and maybe some other areas. And I think that's just going to take time and conversation. You definitely don't want to impose new solutions on communities that don't want them there. But it's really about education and communicating why this is so important to our to to everyone really, I mean, in the end, they benefit from it. And some other opposition that people will regularly throw out is, whoops, is that when you put a bike share station, you block and you lose one or two parking stalls. And so that argument is made a lot where oh, we're losing parking, parking is already so limited. But in the end, you're actually gaining parking for 12 bikes, which could move more people than two cars. To be like 12 cars, there you go. Exactly. So it opens up more. Yeah. And in the end, any change like that. So these changes where you're converting someone from driving their car to some other mode, it's going to be uncomfortable at first. And, and it takes a behavior shift and a mindset change. And those things aren't just an easy replacement. So at least the community is engaged in it, they know it's happening. And, and hopefully those conversations can get further along and they can, those issues can fall to the wayside. Yeah, I noticed they just installed a bunch up at UH, which is great. Yeah. So can you comment on safety? I mean, what's been the experience of, you know, bicycles versus cars? I mean, the car is always going to win. And they kind of, but what's, what's been the safety record of the B-key program? Do we have any I'm sure they do, but I don't know the numbers off the top of my head. I know that the more bike lanes we can get in, the safer people will be. So it's really important that we fund, fund bike lanes at the city level. So how do we educate drivers, you know, about the fact, Hey, look, we now have a lot of bicycles on the road. Is there any kind of a program there now in place? How would we do that? Yeah, I don't know. I guess PSA educational campaigns, how do you reach that large of a group of people? Radio campaign would be great because everyone's got their radio on, but yeah, I mean, that's an issue. And really, I think it just takes exposure and continued exposure to bicycles and bike lanes, keep them in the back of people's mind, and then eventually it'll become second nature. There are a lot of cities where where drivers and bicyclists can coexist relatively safely. And so we can get there. We just, you know, it's not something that people are really used to here yet. So it's going to take some time and we have to just be as safe as possible in the interim. Yeah, one of the things that ticks me off is with bikers is the fact that they never stop for a red light or a stop sign. They just sail right on through. So in some words, they should be ticketed, you know, absolutely. And it's not only unsafe for them, but it's unsafe for the drivers. It's unsafe for everyone involved. I mean, they flip right in front of you. And it's like, wow, well, they can come pretty quick to exactly up your blind spot. Yeah, and just zoom right in front of you. That's really annoying. So the bike community has got to get smarter about that. And I know Bikki and Hawaii bicycling league hold biker education courses. So they are trying to educate the folks that are partaking in the programs and ensuring that at least those people are following the rules. So one of your comments before we started the show was you were looking at transition routes, like you said, you're doing a map of the south shore here on Oahu, of how you can join up various trails as it were. Yeah. So recently there was an op ed written where a journalist tried to bike all the way from the west side down to Honolulu as a commute. And it was interesting and really relevant because we've been working with this south shore path group trying to identify how we could link up all those little chunks of bike path that exist along the south shore and make it a really bikeable commute path and make it a viable option for people coming from the west side where there is so much traffic coming from that direction anyways. And so the challenges that exist there, though, are really jurisdiction. So some of it is city owned land, some of it is private privately owned land, some of it is, you know, developers or whatever it might be. And so really trying to it's like a puzzle piece or a bunch of puzzle pieces that we're trying to fit together. And we've been working on that for a couple of years now. And we've done some preliminary studies and mapped out what that might look like and, you know, hopefully, it was really great to see that op ed and hopefully that'll spur some interest. And so we can get people talking about it and maybe use what what we've already done to to create some solutions or implementation of that. So what about some tax incentives for people that want to buy a beaky membership? And so they can have this monthly fee because carpoolers and other people like that. There is a small like after before tax incentive that an employer can allocate to his employees. If he wants to do that. Is that? Yeah, I think that would a bike rider qualify for that. I'm not sure if it exists right now. But it might though. I know that there have been talks of pooling all those things into sort of a transportation package that employers can offer their employees. And so that would be a way to incentivize, you know, all those folks working downtown to not drive to work. So looking at what that package might look like, like, oh, you can either drive your car to work, or we'll give you, you know, this many lift credits and and a pass for beaky and a bus pass. And you can do that instead. So yeah, I mean, all any incentives, I think, especially as these alternatives are growing in popularity, I think it's really important to spur interest in the early stages. Can you care to comment on energy efficiency? Yeah, so. Well, as I said before, I think energy efficiency, transportation sector energy efficiency is essentially using less. So all of these are really great options for for saving energy basically in the transportation sector, and also saving money there. All these alternatives tend to be cheaper. In the long run, then, then driving your car cars are really expensive. Yeah, they are. They're not cheap. And I think a lot of the costs are are hard to see. All of the oil changes and insurance costs and the insurance and parking. Oh, my goodness parking. So yeah, I mean, the same way that energy efficiency can save households money and save them energy transportation efficiency essentially, driving less can do the same for households. Okay. Yeah. So have I missed anything that you would like to talk about? No, I think we covered it. Did? Yeah, just all of it, right? Yeah. So anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the the Blue Planet report card on transportation, because we always get like a D minus on transportation. Transportation has been a tricky one like the past few years. And so there's a lot of people working on the transportation front. But when electricity is primarily managed by the PUC and our utility transportation is dispersed. And it's hard because there's no central entity to change, you have to change the minds and the decisions of a whole group of people. And so thousands of people have to make Yeah, they have to make the active choice to do something different. So it's a slower process. behavior changes take longer and hopefully over the next year, we'll make some more progress and keep chipping away at it. Well, come back and tell us about it. Lauren, thank you very much. Thank you. It's great having you here. Thank you. Well done. Great project. Thanks.