A new type of neighborhood car-sharing program has been launched in Chicago, including in high-rise residential buildings and areas with large pockets of low-wage earners, under a study aimed at expanding transportation options while reducing overall car ownership in the city, officials will announce Monday.
Backed by a federal grant, the two-year car-sharing study represents a social experiment to make better use of a resource that many Americans couldn’t bear to think about living without in a nation where the personal car is king of the road. For others, people who rely mostly on public transportation or bicycles, there still is an occasional need — taking an ill child to the doctor or lugging home a 40-pound bag of cat litter, for example — to have access to a motor vehicle.
“The mission is to make it possible to live well without owning a car,” said Sharon Feigon, executive director of the Shared-Use Mobility Center. The center, a nonprofit group that concentrates on developing new transportation choices in urban areas, is partnering with the San Francisco-based company Getaround on the car-sharing pilot project in four Chicago neighborhoods — Bridgeport, Bronzeville, Pilsen and Rogers Park — as well as Evanston.
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