New electric shuttle service will launch in downtown Orlando this fall

Downtown Orlando will see the arrival of a new electric shuttle service this fall, as part of an effort by city officials to increase visitation and expand transportation options in the downtown core.

The new program, dubbed Ride DTO, will be an on-demand shuttle service that will essentially function as a publicly subsidized Uber service. An agreement approved by city leaders Monday with Circuit Transit, an eco-friendly microtransit company, will cover the cost of operating five mini-shuttles downtown, including one that is ADA-complaint.

The electric shuttles will offer exclusive rides suitable for small parties, available for pick-up and drop-off within the downtown Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) through a mobile application. By “exclusive,” they mean you can expect rides to service your party only, not a pool situation with other individuals or parties that request a ride while you're en route to your destination.

Initial fares will cost an “anticipated” $1 per ride to start, according to city documents. However, the CRA’s executive director David Barilla told city commissioners and Mayor Dyer on Monday that they’re also exploring the idea of offering coupon codes to riders who patronize downtown restaurants to essentially cover the cost of the ride.

“While working with a number of businesses and residents in downtown, it became fairly clear that needed to increase our mobility options within downtown Orlando to help people both get around to their ultimate destination, but also to patronize the businesses that we have, you know, in various different districts throughout downtown,” Barilla told city leaders during a presentation Monday afternoon.

The program is expected to run 10 hours a day, seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. according to Barilla, clearly prioritizing daytime visitation at least to start. Barilla said this could be helpful, for instance, for those who work downtown who need a lift to grab lunch somewhere within the downtown core, and then a lift back to the office or what have you after.

The agreement with Circuit Transit, modeled after one the company has with the city of Hollywood, will cost the city of Orlando $595,712.50 for an initial one-year term, with the opportunity for city officials to approve two one-year extensions after. The contract allows that, if the agreement is renewed, the contract would allow for an “annual adjustment” and a 3% cost increase over the prior year.

Circuit Transit has similar shuttle programs operating in West Palm Beach (where most rides are free), Fort Lauderdale and more than 40 other locations in states across the country, from California to Texas to Massachusetts.

According to Palm Beach Daily News, their on-demand shuttle service with Circuit Transit began as a pilot program back in 2021, transporting riders between downtown West Palm Beach and the town of Palm Beach. The program was extended in 2022 due to the popularity of the program, with ride prices ranging from free to $8, depending on where you’re headed and the number of passengers.

Barilla, with the Downtown Orlando CRA, told city commissioners that they also looked at a similar shuttle program that used to operate in Tampa — called the “Downtowner” — that Barilla said was “loved to death.” While the program served an average 500 customers per day, wait times eventually reached up to 45 minutes.

The program ended in 2021 due to consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Barilla said that residents have apparently been asking the city to bring it back. Tampa’s new downtown Tesla rideshare service reportedly hasn’t sparked as much interest as the Downtowner program, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reports.

Unlike the autonomous SWAN shuttles that the city of Orlando also championed last year, the Ride DTO shuttles through Circuit Transit will be operated by actual drivers paid a “living wage” of at least $15 an hour, under the company’s agreement with the city. Paying drivers tips isn’t required, although you can imagine — while earning $15 an hour in a rising cost-of-living city like Orlando — they would be appreciated.

According to Barilla, the city is hoping to launch the Ride DTO program with Circuit Transit this September. The company will be responsible for providing the city with monthly and quarterly reports on total ridership, the number of missed rides, average trip waiting times, average trip times, and the pick-up and drop-off locations of each ride.

Microtransit services have been spreading across U.S. cities and counties in recent years, but critics of such programs argue microtransit is broadly less efficient than mass transit, due in part to its limited rider capacity.

The Amalgamated Transit Unit, a labor union that represents transportation workers, has also criticized microtransit, arguing it often caters to a less diverse ridership compared to fixed-route public transit, and “encourages cost cutting through privatization and the degradation of transit jobs.”

Orlando Weekly reached out to the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1596, a local union representing Lynx bus drivers, for their thoughts on the new program, but did not receive a response ahead of publication. Lynx drivers make a minimum $18 to $21 an hour to start, according to their union contract, and up to $30 an hour max, with pay rates scheduled to rise just over $1 this September.

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