The City of Orlando’s Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board is looking at the possibility of hiring a new on-demand shuttle service in the downtown core.
According to city files, the CRA is looking at hiring the services of Circuit Transit Inc. to bring five electric shuttles downtown to run 10 hours a day, seven days a week, as part of a new program they’re calling “Ride DTO.”
The services would cost the CRA over $595,000 to run for the first year, but riders would be expected to pay just $1 per ride once launched.
“The purpose of the Ride DTO program (Program) is to improve accessibility and transit options, thereby also encouraging the retention of downtown businesses by increasing consumer spending and visitation in the Area, by temporarily funding on-demand rideshare within the Area.”
Services to be provided by Circuit also include monthly, quarterly, and annual reports on the
level of service and operational/financial data. This includes information on total ridership,
missed rides, average wait times, trip duration, and pick-up and drop-off locations.
Online planning resource site, Planetizen (Website), recently published a somewhat scathing view on microtransit initiatives that questions their ability to move adequate amounts of people without single-person rides, its effects on the prices of other chauffeur services, and its predisposition to servicing affluent, white residents versus BIPOC, disabled, and low-income passengers.
So the goal is to use the shuttle from one empty building or closed business to the next empty building? Another solution that doesn’t address the actual problem.