The collaborative effort came together with help from the Chicago-based Shared-Use Mobility Center, a nonprofit that wants to make it possible "to live well without owning a car," in the words of executive director Sharon Feigon. She's got over a decade of experience setting up and running car-share services in cities around the country. She likens establishing affordable car-share in a disadvantaged neighborhood to opening a grocery store in a food desert: It taps into underserved demand.
"Our experience is doing something like this can work really well," she says. "Take really good electric cars and make them affordable and accessible to people who don't have a lot of money for transportation — of course that can work."
Neighborhoods that need it
L.A. is known as a driving city, but public transit has drastically expanded there in recent years. That same transit expansion has had the unfortunate effect of pushing low-income residents out of the improved areas as property values rise, says community organizer Sandra McNeill. As executive director of T.R.U.S.T South L.A., she works to stabilize housing and transportation for the communities getting displaced by new development. She supports car-sharing as a way to keep down costs of living so low-income residents avoid being displaced.
"If they can then defer purchase of a vehicle or sell off a vehicle, there can be tremendous savings that can help stabilize a family," McNeill says.
Some of the cars will go into South L.A., where McNeill works. It's a part of town where almost everybody rents — around 85 percent, she says. A family of four there earns $25,000 a year, half the city's median income. The car-share program will also focus on Westlake, Pico-Union, Boyle Heights, and Koreatown, areas home to large numbers of new immigrants. Many people in these neighborhoods work in garments, restaurants, or construction, all areas highly vulnerable to wage theft and sub-minimum wage compensation. Healthy food and park space are limited, but rates of asthma and cancer are extremely high.
Neighborhoods that need it
L.A. is known as a driving city, but public transit has drastically expanded there in recent years. That same transit expansion has had the unfortunate effect of pushing low-income residents out of the improved areas as property values rise, says community organizer Sandra McNeill. As executive director of T.R.U.S.T South L.A., she works to stabilize housing and transportation for the communities getting displaced by new development. She supports car-sharing as a way to keep down costs of living so low-income residents avoid being displaced.
"If they can then defer purchase of a vehicle or sell off a vehicle, there can be tremendous savings that can help stabilize a family," McNeill says.
Some of the cars will go into South L.A., where McNeill works. It's a part of town where almost everybody rents — around 85 percent, she says. A family of four there earns $25,000 a year, half the city's median income. The car-share program will also focus on Westlake, Pico-Union, Boyle Heights, and Koreatown, areas home to large numbers of new immigrants. Many people in these neighborhoods work in garments, restaurants, or construction, all areas highly vulnerable to wage theft and sub-minimum wage compensation. Healthy food and park space are limited, but rates of asthma and cancer are extremely high.