Getting Charge Out of Riding Electric Trolley : Transit: Driver compares Laguna Beach’s non-polluting open-air vehicle to steering ‘a large golf cart.’

LAGUNA BEACH —  Yvette Lively meandered past sunbathers, basketball players and picnickers Saturday, right into the record book. She drove the county’s first battery-powered, electric trolley.

“It’s clean, smooth and quiet and very easy to drive,” said Lively, a city transit driver, who compared the $165,000 open-air vehicle to “a large golf cart.”

Laguna Beach High School sophomores Sara Vandyke and Amy Hammond were waiting for their regular shuttle bus when Lively drove up to their bench and yelled, “Free rides today!”

The two beach-bound teen-agers looked at each other, giggled and boarded the year-round trolley.

“I can’t drive yet, so this makes it easier to get around,” said Vandyke. “We get a lot traffic in the summer in Laguna, so the shuttles really help.”

Sue Cryster was shopping downtown with her 9-year-old son, Scott, when the trolley pulled up.

“Mom, an electric car and it’s free!” the youngster said.

“This is really fun,” Cryster said after the two hopped on and took their seats. “Something like this is fantastic. It’s time to get rid of those smelly buses and get some more of these nice clean ones.”

Elementary school teachers Marjean Hanson and Kathy Riley had just finished eating brunch when they boarded the brand-new vehicle “just for fun.” They window-shopped from their seats as the trolley stopped at a red light along Coast Highway.

“We knew about this ahead of time and we wanted to try it out,” said Hanson, a 20-year resident of Laguna Beach. “I think it’s a great idea for our town. Laguna has always been very progressive.”

“It’s refreshing to see somebody actually do something positive to try and eliminate pollution instead of just talking about it,” added Riley, a resident of Lake Forest.

Don and Jan Vickers rode the trolley to the beach with their 6-month-old foster son, Rafael. They said their 22-year-old son, Ian, rode electric trolleys in Santa Barbara while attending the University of California there.

“We never had to worry about him having bus fare because the students got to ride for free,” said Don Vickers, a 20-year resident of Laguna Beach.

The new electric shuttle bus was bought from CleanAir Transit, the same Santa Barbara-based company that has eight similar trolleys operating in that city.

Councilwoman Lida Lenney, who presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of City Hall on Saturday morning, predicted that the new trolley will catch on with both residents and visitors.

The trolley was paid for mostly with city funds and money from the Orange County Transportation Authority, South Coast Air Quality Management District and Southern California Edison Co.

The vehicle can seat up to 19 people. The city will continue to offer free rides from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. The normal trolley fare will be 75 cents on routes that go to the Laguna Beach Arts Festival grounds and 50 cents along Coast Highway to the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point.