In many areas, poor residents typically have longer commutes and less access to public transportation than middle- and upper-class communities, yet they’re being excluded from the growing car-share trend.
But that gap may at least begin to close in Los Angeles.
Across the U.S. people earning between $5,000 and $30,000 a year spend about a quarter of their household income on transportation. Though car-sharing programs can help low-income individuals greatly cut down on travel costs and gas emissions, these companies typically don’t cater to poorer neighborhoods since the profit potential isn’t there, Streets Blog USA points out.
But Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC), a public interest group, realized how much potential these programs can have in low-income neighborhoods, so it’s helping to bring shared transportation to poor parts of L.A.
SUMC partnered with California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the City of Los Angeles to launch a three-year pilot that will bring about 100 electric and hybrid car-sharing vehicles to disadvantaged areas in and around Central L.A.
[For more of this story, written by Eleanor Goldberg, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...vcommref=mostpopular]
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