March 30, 2018

Testing micro transit in St. Louis

 

Next City -Downtown STL, Inc, St. Louis’s downtown business association, wants to solve their neighborhood’s first-mile, last-mile transportation problems and bolster the economy in the process. To do so, they’re experimenting with on-demand transit, sometimes called microtransit. They’ve funded a four-month pilot project to serve downtown transit riders and drivers with free, on-demand shuttle rides.

From March 1 to June 30, a three-car fleet of electric cabs will operate in the roughly one-square mile downtown area. The five-passenger vehicles fall somewhere on the spectrum between a downtown circulator bus and UberPool and LyftLine, the ride-hailing services’ carpooling options. Customers will be able to order a ride with an app or by calling a phone number. The cabs will be able to pick up multiple passengers en route when they’re heading to and from similar locations. When the cabs don’t have passengers, they’ll drive fixed routes through high-use areas and people will be able to hail them, like a classic yellow cab. Downtown STL is funding the $135,000 pilot, which will be free for customers to use.

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