By Kayla Samimi
Executive News Editor
Since Manhattan Beach’s Feb. 1 launch of its new transportation system, The Downtowner, hundreds of residents have been utilizing the free ride service that is available to all residents and visitors through environmentally-friendly electric carts.
The Downtowner is a company that works to provide effective transportation within cities. The company is currently active in five cities across the country and is in its pilot period in Manhattan Beach.
According to Downtowner co- founder Sam Knapp, in the first weekend of its launch, nearly 200 people rode The Downtowner in Manhattan Beach. This is the largest number the company has seen in a city’s first pilot week, and they hope the number will continue to increase, Knapp said.
Photos: New transportation system is free to all residents and visitors in Manhattan Beach.
“We are certainly hoping that this gains attraction during its pilot program so that it can get funded by the city and expand to include multiple parts or even all of Manhattan Beach,” Knapp said.
Different businesses and organizations, such as The Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professional Association, Pages Bookstore and the Strand House, are sponsoring the carts.
“The Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professional Association is excited to be sponsoring a cart system in the city,” Manhattan Beach Downtown Busness Association head Kelly Stroman said. “We feel like we are giving back to the community.”
According to Knapp, the Manhattan Beach downtown area has always had very limited parking, so with The Downtowner, the city and the company hope to make travel more convenient for everyone in the area.
“The purpose of the Downtowner is to help reduce traffic congestion, free up parking and provide a short ride solution for visitors and local residents of the community,” Knapp said.
In order to use the service, residents have to download the application, “The Downtowner,” and then use the app to call a ride to their specific location. According to Stroman, it is similar to current services such as Uber and Lyft.
The city has been planning to implement The Downtowner for the past two years and has been working with the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professional Association to do so, Stroman said. The service is completely free for all users, although riders are encouraged to tip their drivers, Stroman said.
For the first six months of its launch, there will be six carts, each of which will seat six passengers. Downtowner employees will drive the vehicles seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The carts are electrically powered, and city officials will charge all of the carts overnight in the Metlox parking lot.
“Since the carts are electric, we need to charge them so that they are always functional,” Stroman said. “It is important to note that charging spots don’t take up parking spots since we don’t want to decrease the already limited parking downtown.”
The boundaries for the carts will be within the downtown area and west of Pacific Avenue, but after six months, the city is hoping to extend the service throughout the city to east Manhattan Beach. It is also looking to add more carts, Stroman said.
The city will decide whether or not to maintain the service based on the community feedback it receives and the popularity of the service during its six-month pilot period. According to Stroman, based upon the results thus far, the city expects The Downtowner to be a success.
Link: Read more about The Downtowner company by visiting their official website.
“During its first few days, we had hundreds of people using The Downtowner throughout the city,” Stroman said. “If it can do that well in the first week, we can just imagine how successful it will continue to be in the future. I personally think it will be massively successful.”
Each vehicle is equipped with iPads that the riders can use to look up information about the city and the sponsors of the cart. According to Stroman, the iPads are intended to entertain the riders while also informing and keeping them aware of events occurring in the city.
As of now, there are no plans to extend the service to Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach or any surrounding cities in the South Bay.
“We know that The Downtowner will work beautifully in those areas [around the South Bay], and we would love to expand there as well as in the future,” Knapp said.
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