If we can build a carshare network in East Palo Alto within 0.5 miles of any resident, the residents who do not use their cars do not have to own their car and this would reduce on street parking demand.

Over 2 years ago when I did not have a car, I wrote a blog post to see if carshares could ease parking congestion on East Palo Alto public streets because many residents were complaining about parking congestion problems at City meetings.

Can Carshares in East Palo Alto Ease Parking Congestion on our Streets?

I’d like to talk to about one potential incremental solution that could help remove around 1 - 3% of the cars parked on the road.

East Palo Alto SunChristopher Kao

On-Street Parking Supply Will Decrease

A number of things have changed since then, which has overall decreased the supply of on street public parking spaces, which means fewer cars that can be in the city and hence more potential demand for a service such as a carshare.

1. City Council is currently considering a city-wide residential parking permit program which would give each home at most 2 parking permits. This would decrease demand for street parking.
2. The daylighting law went into effect on 1/1/25, which means that statewide in California cars cannot park within 15 feet of any crosswalk or intersection. This decreases the supply of street parking.
3. More employees have been called back into the office. This increases the demand for vehicles since transit does not get residents to Alameda County or Santa Clara County easily.
4. Enforcement of parking violations in red zones has increased as our police department has hired new community service officers. This keeps the nominal supply of street parking the same, but effectively decreases the number of parking spots. Fewer people will park where they should never have been vehicles parked, such as within 15 feet of fire hydrants.
5. Public works continues to properly mark bus stops with red curbs, as indicated in section 10.08.100 of the EPA Muni-Code: "The portions of city streets, roads, avenues, ways, places or other thoroughfares and highways and portions thereof hereinafter described are bus stops. The bus stops shall be indicated by placing and  maintaining red paint upon the entire curb surface included in the areas designated, unless there is no curb surface, in which case the area shall be designated by signs placed at appropriate intervals." This decreases the supply of street parking

Sharing One Car

Two months after I wrote that original blog post, I bought a car because I needed to get to work in Sunnyvale (Santa Clara County). I had tried using Getaround several times prior to that, but I found myself having to scooter in the dark winter evenings to Belle Haven across East Palo Alto just to pick up and return the car. There were no cars in East Palo Alto available on Getaround, and I felt like I was putting my life in danger by scootering at night in the dark due to low visibility for drivers.

When my partner moved in with me in 2024, we had considered getting a second car. I pushed back against getting a second car since I could work remotely and since the insurance costs would be an additional $4k per year. In fact, we were offered a gift of a used car and denied it mostly on the grounds of the insurance and maintenance costs. Hence we opted to share one car. Every day, she takes her car to work in Mountain View and if I need to join her after work I typically bike to either Caltrain station in Palo Alto and take the train down. Or I always have the option to Uber, though I haven't exercised that option. On days when I want to go to my Sunnyvale office, we drive together and I drop her off at work. Then, I drive to my Sunnyvale office. After work, I either pick her up or we meet at a restaurant such as in downtown Mountain View.

Residents Most Likely to Benefit from Carshare

Of the younger couples in their 20s or 30s that I have met in East Palo Alto, some have 1 car and others have 2 cars. I think that if a carshare were available within 0.5 mile of their homes, they would lean towards sharing 1 car and rely on Uber or carshare occasionally if both need to use a car at the same time. The couples I know with 2 cars don't actually use both cars on most days of the week. In fact, I'd estimate only around 1 day of the week when both need a car for different purposes and that is typically on a weekend day.

Why is my analysis on younger couples by the way? It is because the median age in East Palo Alto is 34.3 (source) which skews younger than the median age of neighboring cities: Palo Alto's median age is 42.3 (source) and Menlo Park's median age is 38.5 (source).

These are the attributes of residents who I think would be most likely to use carshare:

• if a carshare is within 0.5 miles of their home so they can walk to it within 10 minutes
• if the resident needs a car for 2 days or less per week (e.g. both weekends)
• if the resident can bike or bus to work (The EPX which I wrote about here brings residents as far as San Bruno BART)
• if the resident has difficulty finding parking for their car

Existing Carshares in EPA

Zipcar

As I had mentioned in my previous carshare post, East Palo Alto does not have any Zipcars. Palo Alto and Stanford University have both had contracts with Zipcar for over 10 years now. They tend to be clustered in Stanford-owned parking lots and in Downtown Palo Alto city-owned parking lots.

Getaround

There are 0 Getaround cars available in East Palo Alto (Fig 1). I spot checked a few different days and times and all had 0 results.

Turo

Turos tend to be more expensive and luxurious, but from a quick search pricing seems pretty reasonable. I found 2 cars available in East Palo Alto which is an improvement from 2 years ago when I checked (Fig 2). The locations of these cars are still not within a 0.5 mile of many residents of the northern and western portions of EPA though.

U-Haul Trucks

Sometimes residents may need a truck to move larger items. Having these available could substitute for needing to buy a truck for themselves. Within East Palo Alto, I only found 1 location for U-Haul trucks. Surprisingly there are none available at the U-Haul storage location itself along East Bayshore Rd.

Home Depot Trucks

The Home Depot in East Palo Alto does have rental trucks available for 75-minutes, per day, or even per-week (Fig 4). It is pretty awesome we have the option to rent the Home Depot trucks. The problem is that it's over half a mile away for most parts of East Palo Alto. For residents of The Gardens, it's a 0.9 mile walk (Fig 5); this is outside the comfortable 0.5 mile, 10 minute walking distance for most users. Residents on the west side to the south of University Ave stand to benefit from this though, since they can just walk across the Clarke Ave pedestrian overdressing. Residents on the west side to the north of University Ave are outside the 0.5 mile radius though.

Carshare Locations

We want a carshare network such that any East Palo Alto resident can access a car within 0.5 miles. Fig 6 shows that it would only take approximately 6 new locations for carshares to cover the entire 2.5 square miles of East Palo Alto. The area of a 0.5-mile-radius circle is 0.785 square miles, so it's possible that the City of East Palo Alto can be covered with fewer than 6 locations.

Prioritized Locations

Areas with more parking congestion, such as the Mid and the west side, should be prioritized with overlapping circles. Those areas tend to be denser as they have been fully developed with very few vacant lands. The west side has denser apartments.

Specific Locations

Zipcars in other cities are often placed on public city streets with painted boxes and posted signs that delineate that the parking is only for Zipcars. One example of a location could be a parking spot on Bay Road between Clarke Ave and Pulgas Ave.

Wherever Zipcars are located, there should be a bike parking rack nearby. That way people can bike over, lock their bike, and get in the car. It would also be beneficial to locate the carshares closer to bus stops.

New development TDM (transportation demand management) plans often include carshares as one method to reduce single occupancy vehicle trips by the city-mandated 40%. These are mainly intended for employees and I think they should be opened up for the public use.

Other Considerations

Carshares typically require the driver to fuel up at the end of each trip. This is very convenient for East Palo Alto residents that we have the Shell and Chevron gas stations along University Ave.

One challenge to consider is that Zipcar might be occupying a space on the street during street sweeping, so we would need to account for that in our street sweeping policy.

Conclusion

As the City builds denser and re-gains a downtown (Ravenswood Business District Specific Plan Update), there will be more demand for vehicles and less supply of on-street parking. While the City works to use existing on-street parking more efficiently and equitably with a potential residential parking permit program, the City can also initiate carshare service partnerships to reduce the number of vehicles owned by residents. Carshares can help decrease monthly bills for residents and decrease stress from looking for parking spots.