HACP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CASTER BINION (Photo by J.L. Martello)
by Christian Morrow, Courier Staff Writer
Thanks to a partnership arranged by 412 Food Rescue with its existing partners at the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Housing Authority and Giant Eagle, residents in the Hill District’s Bedford Dwellings public housing community and at Prospect Terrace in East Pittsburgh can now utilize Lyft, the national ride-sharing company, to get directly to grocery stores they previously had limited access to.
Lyft announced the launch of its pilot Grocery Access Program Aug. 22 at the Bedford Hope Center in the Hill to enthusiastic responses.
“This is bigger than a big deal. This is wild. This makes you go ‘wow,’” said HACP Executive Director Caster Binion. “This program is an example of what you can do when you bring partners together. This is an opportunity for our young moms and seniors. Something as simple as going to the store for ice cream isn’t simple when you don’t have access. Transportation is big. This is a ‘wow’ moment.”
The Grocery Access Program is part of Lyft City Works, a national initiative that looks to achieve the maximum impact by improving transportation access and equity. It has been successfully rolled out in more than a dozen cities across the country so far.
Lyft Pennsylvania General Manager Josh Huber told the New Pittsburgh Courier that the pilot program will run for six months through Feb. 1, but he fully expects it to run beyond that.
“It’s been successful in (Washington) D.C. and our other cities and we expect it will be here, too,” he said. “Success will be determined by the level of participation—but there’s no target number. As long as it’s growing, that’s success.”
The program will provide residents of the participating public housing communities with a $2.50 flat-rate fare on eight rides per month, or one round trip per week, to and from nearby Giant Eagle stores. Lyft makes up the difference.
To take advantage of the program, residents must sign up through the housing authorities to get the discount, and they will need a smartphone to access the Lyft app, which needs to be linked to a bank account. Binion said about 33 percent of Bedford Dwellings residents have both smartphones and a bank account, but the authority has programming and personnel to assist those who don’t.
Resident Gail Felton is not only among that 33 percent—she’s already signed up.
“I was told Access could take us to the store and it does. But it makes a lot of stops coming and going, and by the time you get back, that ice cream you bought is melted,” she said. “Now, we can go shopping and be dropped off at our front door. I’m excited that the mayor is bringing all these things to the city, and I’m excited that we have it first—because then it will take off.”
Mayor Bill Peduto praised all the partners involved in rolling out this program.
“Forty-seven percent of people in the city don’t have a grocery, and 1 in 4 don’t have a car, they rely on public transportation, use bikes or walk,” he said. “So if we can’t bring the store to the people, we’ll bring the people to the store. This kind of program breaks down barriers.”
But for decades there has been a service that chauffeurs residents from poor Black neighborhoods that taxis historically refused to serve and takes them on trips to doctors’ offices and groceries that are sometimes difficult or impossible to reach by bus: the jitneys.
Jitneys are unregulated and operate on a strictly cash basis. And every day, jitney drivers ferry people from the Hill District to the Giant Eagle on the South Side—and some of those passengers are from Bedford Dwellings.
How will the Lyft program affect the jitney drivers? The Courier asked a few jitneys located at the South Side Giant Eagle on Wharton Street if they felt the new program by Lyft would affect their business. One jitney said he usually charges $7 or $8 for a ride from the Hill to the Giant Eagle, “so the cheaper ride (Lyft’s $2.50) could knock some guys down. But if it’s only in Bedford and only once a week, that shouldn’t hurt the guys.”
Another jitney told the Courier that “people will still catch rides to the Hill” via jitneys.
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier
About Post Author
