New York City has announced a pilot program to replace the gasoline generators used on food carts with a cleaner alternative, according to city officials.
Under the program, new rechargeable electric batteries will now fuel the carts' generators instead of gasoline, a change the city hopes will make street vending greener.
The city says the new batteries help make the carts less noisy, addressing one of the common complaints about the small gasoline engines that hum on sidewalks across the five boroughs.
Officials also said that, unlike the current generators, the batteries will not pollute the air, cutting down on emissions from the many carts that operate throughout the city each day.
The initiative is being rolled out as a six-month pilot program, giving the city time to test how the batteries perform for vendors before any wider expansion.
If successful, the switch could offer a quieter and cleaner way to power the food carts that are a familiar part of daily life on New York City streets.