WEST PALM BEACH — Free downtown-area rides on a popular city program will cost passengers some money next month. And the teal vans that replaced the trolley-style buses last year could themselves be replaced as early as next year.
The city-funded on-demand ride service that's part of its RideWPB program , where passengers use a smartphone app to summon rides to and from downtown West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, will cost $1 to $4 starting Tuesday. Adding fares is necessary, a city official says, because the free program's popularity has led to too many riders for not enough available seats, leaving too many passengers waiting too long to be picked up.
Rides to and from RideWPB's downtown zone — between Banyan Boulevard and Okeechobee Boulevard — will cost $2. Rides to and from the West Palm Beach zones outside downtown will cost $1. Rides to and from Palm Beach will cost $4, plus $1 for each extra passenger. Rides from outside downtown will cost less to encourage people to walk and bike downtown, said West Palm Beach mobility and transportation manager Jessica Keller.
RideWPB's service area includes downtown, Northwood, Palm Beach, the Grandview Heights neighborhood just southwest of downtown, and the areas in and around Palm Beach Atlantic University and the Norton Museum of Art.
Passengers must download a smartphone app called Circuit — the company running the service — and sign up with their email address, birth date, name and phone number to call for a ride within the coverage zone. Passengers must pay using the Circuit app. Cash is not accepted. A TK-seat golf cart-style electric vehicle ferries riders around downtown and Palm Beach.
Wait times have increased so much since the free on-demand service launched in May 2023 that would-be passengers who try to hail a ride through the app are left stranded, canceling their requests, Keller said.
"This is repeated history for anyone who introduces free on-demand services," Keller said. With the fares, "People will think twice, ideally, before canceling," she said.
RideWPB's Circuit-run on-demand service has attracted between 15,000 to nearly 20,000 passengers monthly since its launch, company data provided by the city shows. Wait times have grown from 11 to 12 minutes in summer 2023, to 12 to 13 minutes in July, the latest data shows. Wait times were riders' No. 1 complaint, Keller said, and they suggested adding fares to fix the problem.
'No one likes the vans': City will find new vehicles... could the trolleys return?
Another change to downtown West Palm Beach public transportation could happen as soon as next year, Keller said, when the city plans to begin the process of replacing its widely recognized teal vans that run along two routes with something more eye-catching and fun.
"No one likes the vans," Keller said. The eight- to fifteen-seater teal Ford Transit vans, which say "free!>>ride" on them, replaced the trolley-style diesel buses in May 2023, Keller said, because the trolleys "were at the end of their useful lives."
Although stylish, the wheelchair lifts on the aging trolleys would break down, Keller said. Also, the city narrowed downtown streets slowed them down, knocking them off schedule.
Molly's Trolleys General Manager Lauren Elam contended that mechanics would immediately go out and fix wheelchair lifts when issues were reported, and that drivers had no problem navigating narrowed streets. "We've been longtime supporters of West Palm Beach," she said. "It wasn't just a means of transportation. It was a part of our community’s charm and accessibility."
Trolley ridership had also fallen as the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to stay home. It never recovered even after people came back to downtown. More than 615,000 people rode the three trolley routes in 2019. Less than 99,000 rode them in 2022, the last full year before the city ended the service.
More than 37,000 people have gotten rides on the RideWPB vans during the 12 months ending in June, data provided by the city shows. Keller described it as a stop-gap program. "It's temporary until we have permanent service," she said.
The city will start advertising this fall that it is seeking to replace the vans, Keller said. "We want something that's fun," she said, "Something unique." Such vehicles could replace the vans as soon as the middle of 2025, she said.
Elam said Molly's Trolleys would love to bid to replace the vans and return to the city.
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Chris Persaud covers transportation for The Palm Beach Post. Send tips and ideas to cpersaud@pbpost.com .
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Free on-demand downtown West Palm Beach rides won't be free anymore starting in October
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