School Fair Features Electric Cars, Bicycles

Have you ever ridden a bike without pedaling? Driven a car without stopping for gas?

You will.

That was the message Thursday evening at Nobel Middle School in Northridge during the Electric Vehicle EduFaire, an inaugural event that was part education, part exposition. It was the culmination of a two-week academic program designed to introduce students to the emerging technologies that will shape the future of transportation.

Set up on the school’s blacktop, more than a dozen companies or agencies, including General Motors, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the California Energy Commission, showed off electric cars, trucks and bicycles that parents were encouraged to test.

“The idea is that these kids, probably more than anyone, will have an opportunity to have an [electric vehicle] as their first car,” said Melanie Savage, spokeswoman for Calstart, a Burbank-based consortium that is developing an advanced-vehicle industry in California.

Science teacher Ron Hage conceived of the project last year and said he hopes it will be used as a model for other schools. Ideally, he’d like to see it held at the Los Angeles Convention Center next year and open to all the district’s campuses.

“I am still excited about this,” he said.

For Savage, one of the highlights of Thursday’s fair was watching parents discover that electric vehicles have evolved far beyond most people’s long-held example--the golf cart.

“It’s wonderful to see people turn on to it,” she said.

For Hage, it was the moment one parent thanked him for “a chance to participate in the future,” he recalled Friday.

“This isn’t just a myth,” he said. “It’s really happening.”