Our multi-year Car Sharing and Mobility Hubs Pilot Project is wrapping up at the end of this year. This pilot is one of the first of its kind in the nation, and we’re now turning our focus toward evaluation and sharing our lessons learned. Our project is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that “puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.”

A deep, community-led evaluation process

From the start, we’ve had a community-centered, resident-informed model. The transportation offerings at each of the three Mobility Hubs sites were tailored based on input from an initial resident needs assessment. Throughout, our resident Site Level Team (SLT) members have served an important role in sharing their knowledge, advice, and vision to help design a project that will work best for all residents. SLT members also conduct outreach and serve as ambassadors of the project to their neighbors. SLT members are compensated for their time and expertise. 

Our evaluation has a similar community-centered approach with a final program survey and focus groups. Site partners First Community Housing, Richmond Community Foundation, and East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation helped us develop the final survey design and participation incentives. Our resident SLTs have been instrumental once again, doing outreach about the survey and focus groups to their neighbors. They have done everything from door knocking to phone calls to collecting program surveys in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. 

Gathering input from many voices

At Lion Creek Crossings in East Oakland, we hosted a special in-person group survey event for the senior residents. The event, immediately following the seniors’ weekly chair exercise group, offered seniors one-on-one support in filling out online surveys on their phones, tablets, or laptops. Transform staff, Resident Services coordinators, and a professional interpreter were on hand to answer questions, and residents helped each other out too. 

To gather more qualitative information, we hosted focus groups in San Jose and East Oakland with simultaneous interpretation. One resident at Lion Creek Crossings shared that Lyft credits and an AC Transit Easy pass gave her more freedom and independence — she was less reliant on friends and family to drive her. At Betty Ann Gardens, a resident shared that having EV carshare on site has been a godsend when her typical transportation falls through. Many residents appreciated that Mobility Hubs offerings saved them money on transportation costs, which can take up 15% of a household’s income. 

Informing future mobility outreach

Thanks to residents’ willingness to share their time and expertise, we’re learning firsthand the barriers to using shared and active transportation, finding out more about the most effective outreach methods for new mobility technologies, and gaining a better understanding of the impacts of mobility hubs on people’s lives and livelihoods. We’ll be summarizing all we’ve learned with the help of our project team from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Shared Use Mobility Center. Stay tuned for our Mobility Hubs final evaluation report in spring 2025.