Giving Back to Georgian Acres at New Mobility Hub

A shuttle at the Georgian Acres mobility hub waits for a passenger (Photo by Leila Saidane)

The Georgian Acres neighborhood is a textbook transit desert, caught between U.S. 183 and I-35; despite its proximity to the North Lamar Transit Center, commute times were 67% longer than Austin's average in 2021, the Chronicle reported. The neighborhood's newly designed transit mobility hub, a collaboration between UT School of Architecture, the Austin Transportation Department's Smart Mobility Office, and local nonprofit Jail to Jobs (whose Austin office borders the hub), might prove a successful model for other areas thirsty for transit.

The Community Hub for Smart Mobility soft-launched its free shuttle service in Georgian Acres on Sept. 7. When the hub officially opens Monday, Nov. 14, it'll be fully equipped with a bikeshare station, e-scooters, a food pantry, and a mobile health clinic, as well as a free shuttle service. Shuttle coordinator Abel Lopez and supervisor Ernest Allen grew up in Georgian Acres. Allen was incarcerated for four years before joining Lopez at Jail to Jobs, which also employs local youth to maintain the shuttle buses. "I used to terrorize this community at 24 years old," Lopez said. "We're doing gang prevention when we [employ] the kids like us that didn't have any hope or opportunity. They're actually part of the mobility hub." There's a range of riders: job interviewees, single mothers, the elderly. In Georgian Acres, "there's prostitution, there's drugs, there's gangs," Lopez says. "It helps the people who don't feel comfortable walking, if they want to move around the area without having to worry, 'What if something happens while I'm waiting for the bus?' They're able to feel more safe, they're able to be a little more free."

As the partners worked to develop the mobility hub, the original vision for a daytime circulator evolved into a request-to-ride system. The hub's efficiency relies on community engagement – but residents may be distrusting. Jail to Jobs founder Chris Haskins says, "It wasn't easy, because people were wondering and maybe even a little skeptical about it, like, 'Wait, what is this? And why is this organization Jail to Jobs a part of it?'"

Lopez, now 34, receives thanks for running the shuttles from the same neighbors he grew up around, back when grocery runs meant walking and riding with only as much as he and his mother could carry. "The other day we [helped a] lady go get to her job interview. I'm pretty sure she got it," he says. Neighbors' skepticism dissipates when they realize that the service is free. "It's still kind of hard for them to understand it," Lopez says, "because they're not used to people just wanting to help."

* Editor's note Thursday, Nov. 10, 5:42pm: This story has been updated. This story originally stated Abel Lopez had recently celebrated a year of sobriety; a newly hired driver, not Lopez, recently celebrated a year of sobriety. We regret the error.