Car-less In Baltimore

"...there are more than 200,000 residents of Baltimore City who don't have access to a car. They are, as Balser describes it, 'lost.' Not only is it harder for them to get around the city, but it's also difficult for them to get to work. They must seek jobs along bus routes or pay for taxis to get to jobs, and they often have to pass up opportunities for higher-paying jobs that are located beyond city limits.

According to the November-December 2005 edition of The Abell Report, a monthly newsletter published by the Baltimore-based philanthropic Abell Foundation, Baltimore is home to 205,544 citizens who don't have access to an automobile. To put things into perspective, that's 32 percent of the city's populationâ€"a number six percentage points higher than the number of New Orleans residents who were without access to cars right before Hurricane Katrina. It has been widely acknowledged that a significant number of New Orleanians could not readily evacuate the city during the hurricane because they lacked auto access."