Picture this: It’s another day in urban paradise. The sun shines bright in the sky as you stand outside in your electronically fortified apartment complex, cell phone in hand. You thumb the screen and your ride-share swiftly approaches. You check your pockets for cash, but remember you don’t need any, your app will take care of the payment. You step in, find a seat, and stare out the window as your ride moves through a neighborhood interconnected by flashing lights, touch screens, and wireless connectivity. This technological transformation isn’t the futuristic vision of an imaginary metropolis–it’s the here and now of your favorite city. Through technology, urban communities all across the nation are transforming in the same way.
The Wackness
America's urban neighborhoods weren’t always beacons of progress and technological advancements. For decades, low-income areas of major cities all shared similar inadequacies like lack of healthcare, curbed resources, and limited access to reliable transit. Understandably, these hardships played a major role in the economic mobility of the citizens inhabiting these urban areas.
When there’s a lack of adequate healthcare in a region, citizens tend to lose faith in the healthcare system as a whole. This mistrust creates a huge void between a city and its citizens. Adding to this disconnect is the absence of jobs or educational resources. When these outlets are scarce, communities can be quick to lose confidence. This leaves little room for advancement. Yet, what seems to mostly expand the gap between low-income communities and the greater parts of a city, is the limited access to reliable transit. Without safe and efficient public transit, opportunities for personal and economic growth are extremely difficult.
A Call For Better Healthcare
American healthcare is expensive. According to HealthSystemTracker.org, each U.S. citizen spends well over $10,000 on healthcare annually. These costs are as a result of Americans not only paying more for services, but also paying more for administrative costs. Many times, low-income communities located in urban areas have a particularly difficult time with higher healthcare rates, due to the complexity of healthcare systems in densely populated cities.
Because of this, many doctors have turned to e-health and telemedicine as a way to connect patients and mitigate some strenuous factors that come with providing healthcare to urban communities. Through this technology, patients can communicate with practitioners through text-messaging, videoconferencing, and other forms of communication via internet or cell phone. While nearly half of U.S. adults making under $30,000 are home broadband users, more than 90% of them have a cellphone. The number of U.S. hospitals that have turned to using this form of technology to reach its patients has more than doubled since 2010 by 76%.
Now, healthcare professionals have more reach within the urban community. This connectivity has not only built trust amongst both groups, but also allowed for a greater understanding of how each functions as a whole.
Knowledge (and Power) To The People
In underserved communities filled with individuals with limited access to education and resources, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) are working with tech industry professionals to serve as a bridge to success. Many of these CBOs have formed alliances with successful tech entrepreneurs of the community or high-profile tech companies to deliver education and provide jobs.
Pioneer Human Services, a Seattle based organization that provides transitional housing and social services to ex-convicts, parolee, and former drug addicts, also owns a metal work facility that provides contract work to Boeing. Recently, it became one of fewer than 100 state organizations to qualify for an ISO-9002 status-certification as a “highly technically qualified” supplier. Another organization, The Center for Employment Training (CET) focuses on specifically training citizens of underserved communities throughout California,Texas, and Virginia. Based in San Jose, they’ve successfully connected disenfranchised members of the community with leading Silicon Valley companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola.
In North Carolina, a program titled “Hack the Hood” has sponsored 16 tech boot camps in eight cities since 2014. The six-week programs have attracted a total of 234 young minorities from low-income neighborhoods, 92 percent of whom have completed the course. The programs start with an intensive two-week focus on technical skills like website design, coding and social media promotion. Then, they pair the young participants with actual small-business clients, where they are responsible for self-managing their projects. This demanding course prepares students for the competitive nature of the industry while nurturing their relationship with technology.
The Driving Force
One of the most detrimental characteristics of living in “the hood” is its limited access to social mobility. Most times this can be illustrated quite literally by the lack of transportation options found in these mostly urban areas. Systems such as public bus routes, train lines, and taxi services fail to reach certain communities, creating what’s called a transit desert. However, new ride-share providers are offering individuals the freedom to hail a ride from other members of the community using just a smartphone.
Most of us are familiar with the ride-share juggernauts like Uber and Lyft, but in New York City, Dollaride Inc. intends to set itself apart and finally make public transit accessible to anyone, anywhere, starting with people who live in transit deserts. Dollaride is a Brooklyn based tech company, whose ride-sharing app unites city goers with New York City’s growing dollar van industry.
Dollar vans are commuter vans that quickly travel on fixed routes throughout the city. In NYC, they currently serve more than 120k people a day in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Even though they are still relatively unknown to the average urban commuter, dollar vans can be found in major cities all across America. Places like Miami, Jersey City, Atlantic City, and Atlanta all have growing dollar van industries, and Dollaride intends to empower the operators, drivers, and riders through it’s ride-sharing app. Led by a Brooklyn born, native New Yorker, Dollaride’s mission is to put an end to transit deserts in cities all over the country.
Endgame
Even though technology is beginning to alter the landscape of urban communities, its insertion hasn’t always been an easy one. Public funding, community support, and committed investors all play a role in cultivating progress and growth in urban areas. New tech is usually expensive, and the devolution of federal money and power to the states has made funding for publicly provided services a battle in itself. The adoption of new technology brings change, and this change is often rapid. Members of these communities need to not only embrace the change, but also be prepared to benefit directly from it in order to avoid getting pushed out or left behind (a common theme of gentrification). Finally, the business owners, start-up teams, and CEOs looking to bring new tech to the hood need to truly care about the communities they’re investing in. This way, they’re prepared to take on the many obstacles that they’ll undoubtedly be faced with and set these areas up for constant growth into the future.
Dollaride is committed to improving transportation in your community by bringing cutting-edge technology to operators, drivers, and passengers throughout the dollar van industry. Our mobile platform digitizes dollar van operations and strategically complements the MTA service. Join the movement as we COMBINE TRANSPORTATION AND OPPORTUNITY WITH DOLLARIDE!
