Freebee, a free shuttle service makes a stop in front of Coral Gables City Hall. HARRY E. GOTTLIEB
Freebee, the free shuttle service that has seduced passengers throughout the south of the world Florida, a region famous for its traffic jams, reaches Doral, starts taking children to school in Miami Lakes and adds 10-passenger cars to its fleet of electric vehicles.
Freebee plans to establish another operational zone in the Downtown of Doral on April 1, hoping to achieve the same level of success it has had in Coral Gables, where it carries an average of 203 passengers per hour, and Key Biscayne, where it handles an average of 17.4 passengers per hour. In Coconut Grove, ridership is up 300 percent since last year.
Freebee’s vehicles, which look like long golf carts, transport passengers door-to-door on short distances within a limited radius. A mobile phone app makes calling one of these cars something like Uber and Lyft, but it’s free.
“It’s practical, it’s free and you have a good time,” said Jason Spiegel, the company’s co-founder. “We are a means of transport of Short trips between municipalities at a low cost for cities because Our electric vehicles require less maintenance, and unlike Buses and trolleys do not use fuel.
“Our goal is that the people stop using their cars.”
If you wonder how Something so simple and efficient is free, it is because local governments use money from their public transportation budget to subsidize service, and advertisements on the sides of vehicles generate revenue for the company,
Freebee, which began operating in Fort Lauderdale in early March, will offer another public transportation option in Doral, where traffic and parking problems worsen along with its growth.
Freebee responded to a request for assistance from Miami Lakes to help transport schoolchildren to and from school, lightening the burden on parents. The Miami Lakes flotilla will be dedicated to transporting students to the hours of entry and exit in schools. Students can also use the service to go to sports or extracurricular programs.
Freebee’s fleet of five-passenger vehicles will be supplemented with new 10-passenger vehicles. A total of 50 vehicles, with a top speed of 35 miles per hour in Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, Miami Lakes, Miami Beach, Central Miami (which includes downtown, Brickell, Midtown, Wynwood, the Design District and Edgewater), Fort Lauderdale and Islamorada. After Doral, Freebee plans to expand to Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and Homestead.
Spiegel gave three examples of the typical Freebee route.
“In Pinecrest, a person who works downtown takes a Freebee from his house to the Metrorail station, and back does the same thing at night,” Spiegel explained. “In Miami Lakes, an older adult takes the Freebee from their home to the market or doctor’s office. In Coral Gables, people can leave the office and grab the Freebee to lunch, and neighbors can use it to run errands, shop, go out to the movies or have dinner.”
Freebee offers a alternative to all those who prefer to stay at home instead of facing the agony and expense of driving and parking.
“We take passengers to businesses and mass transit stations,” Spiegel said. “We are changing the mindset that everyone goes everywhere in their car.”
Freebee’s electric cars They reach a top speed of 35 miles per hour.
Harry E. Gottlieb
Freebee began operations in Key Biscayne, where it now carries 63,486 passengers per year in three vehicles in a 1.7-square-mile zone. “In Key Biscayne, 75 percent of our passengers are women and children, parents love it and trust it because it is a safe and reliable means,” Spiegel said.
Coral Gables signed a contract with Freebee in 2017, during renovations at Miracle Mile and Giralda “when businesses were affected during renovation work and they wanted customers to come straight to the door of their premises,” Spiegel said.
In Coral Gables now, Freebee has three vehicles and carries about 74,067 passengers annually, and has expanded the area of operation to include the Douglas Road Metrorail station.
Fountain: https://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/finanzas/acceso-miami/negocios/article228382134.html#storylink=cpy