Are Cities Promoting Shared Vehicles?

Shared Vehicle in Russia

            When listing the most congested cities in the world, Los Angeles ranks first, with Moscow coming in a close second.  As an attempt to address its mobility crisis, Los Angeles has been scrambling to develop an underutilized transit system which can accommodate its ever-growing population.  In comparison, Moscow has done a smarter job of fighting its congestion through rapid shared-use vehicles.

  

Unused Vehicles

            Not only are cars regularly parked 95% of the time, taking up valuable space which could be used for other purposes, they also cost the average American $8000 a year.  Rather than addressing this epidemic and mitigating its reliance on private vehicles, Angelenos are going in the opposite direction.  Per-capita car purchase rates are four times higher in this past decade than they were in the decade prior, and transit ridership has been declining since 2009.

Carsharing Use in Russia

            This offers a stark contrast between two cities.  While Angelenos are taking to the streets in their personal vehicles, Muscovites have opted for more efficient car-sharing options such as Yandex, where cars can be rented for as low as eight cents per minute.  In just 2018 alone, 16,500 shared vehicles were reported in Moscow, with the figure expected to increase by 5,000 each year. 

This begs the question of why, in two of the most congested cities, car-use patterns are diverging. As in most cases though, this diverging behavior can be traced back to policy. In Moscow, curbside parking comes out to approximately $30 a day for private vehicles, a major expense for everyday Muscovites.   To promote shared vehicles, carsharing vehicles have exemptions which result in dialing parking rates of just $1, with authorities practically begging car-sharing companies to replace the use of privately-owned vehicles.  On the other hand, local governments in LA County require special permitting for car-sharing vehicle parking such as Zip-Car, making it far more difficult to operate a shared vehicle as opposed to a private vehicle.

Single Family Dwellings in Los Angeles

Not only that, but the very nature of LA promotes private car-culture.  Federal policy since the establishment of federal housing administration have incentivized the proliferation of single-family homes.  This was achieved through guaranteed loans for suburban communities as opposed to mixed-use developments such as apartment dwellings, with the rationale being that mixed-use developments were more susceptible to price fluctuations (e.g. a loud music store moving in downstairs might lower the value of units above).   With the low-density nature of Los Angeles, not having a personal vehicle has become much more difficult than it is in Moscow, which has far more transit options.

Ultimately, policy underpins land use and car-sharing.  While prior policy makes it difficult for cities like Los Angeles to promote car-sharing, this is no excuse for failing to establish policy that promotes a future of increased mobility.  Cities such as Moscow have recently demonstrated exponential growth in car-sharing, and Los Angeles should implement similar policies in the way of car-sharing, so that transportation does not take up 40% of California's carbon emissions, along with costing the average american $8000 a year.