Want a free ride? Here are 10 things to know before you take Circuit
Have you noticed the cute electric taxis traveling through South Florida’s streets? They’re part of a new burst of free rides being offered by a growing number of cities as a way to reduce car traffic and attract visitors to central business districts.
The latest addition is expected to arrive next month, when the Circuit ride service starts in Boca Raton. Circuit offers trips through designated zones in vehicles that seat up to five passengers. The cabs are already in several South Florida cities, including Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Wilton Manors, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach, West Palm Beach/Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens.
The rides are free most of the time, paid for by the cities, and passengers have to stay within Circuit’s zones of service. Check the maps and zone perimeters at ridecircuit.com/all-locations.
Circuit is not the only free ride service available. There’s also Freebee, for example, which is offered in Deerfield Beach, Hallandale Beach, Sunrise, Delray Beach, Wellington and at the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station.
I gave Circuit a try in Fort Lauderdale and learned a lot about the ride service as we headed from the downtown area to the beach. Here are 10 things to know before you climb in.
1. Download the Circuit app from your phone’s App store before your day begins. You will have to put in credit card information to set up your account, even if you are riding in a free zone. It’s the only way to set up an account, said Alana Wortsman, Circuit’s South Florida public partnerships manager. “If you input your credit card and ride in a free zone, you will not be charged,” she said.
2. The rides are not always free. If you want to get from West Palm Beach to the island of Palm Beach, the fare is $4, with $1 for each extra rider. In Fort Lauderdale, rides to and from the Las Olas Boulevard area and the beach cost $2, with $1 per additional rider. The maps on the Circuit website and app will tell you when you’ll be charged and how much.
Wortsman explained the reasons for these fees: “The fare helps reduce cancellations, missed rides, and lowers wait times. It helps control the demand so services can remain efficient and sustainable, and still at a very low cost. This is decided by the city as a recommendation from us.”
Wilton Manors, Hollywood, Lake Worth Beach and Boynton Beach also have zones that charge riders.
3. Circuit’s goal is to pick you up within 10 minutes of your app request. “We do not guarantee that it will be at or under 10 minutes; however that is the wait time goal that we strive for and our average wait times in Fort Lauderdale range around the 10-minute mark,” Wortsman said. She recommends riders make requests on the app about 10 or 15 minutes before they’re ready to be picked up.
4. Not all Circuit vehicles have air conditioning. “Our fleet varies from market to market depending on the city’s contract,” Wortsman said. “Our GEM Polaris vehicle does not have A/C, but our sedans and vans do. The GEM Neighborhood Electric Vehicles are open-air, have great ventilation, and we have been running them year-round in South Florida since 2011.”
5. You may get a call from your driver asking for the same information you put in the app. After requesting my ride, I immediately got a call from my driver, Jeremy Saint-Hilaire, who asked me where I was and where I wanted to go. I asked him about this later and he said he just wanted to confirm and let me know how far away he was.
6. The app may tell you the driver is one minute away when he is not. When he called, Saint-Hilaire told me he was eight minutes away, even though the app said he was about to arrive. According to Wortsman: “We are constantly rolling out updates on the app, just this week a (Rider app version) was released making improvements to the ETA calculation and driver location visibility.”
7. The vehicle may move slower than traffic. Even if the driver guns the accelerator, 25 mph is the vehicle max, regardless of the speed limit, Saint-Hilaire told me. According to Wortsman: “GEMs are designed as low-speed vehicles for roads with posted speed limits 35 mph and under.”
8. Your driver may pick up other riders during your trip. For some cities, the website warns: “This location offers pooled rides. You may share the vehicle with other riders outside your party.”
9. The driver is being watched. Saint-Hilaire showed me the camera that was checking if he stopped at stop signs or was using his cellphone while driving. According to Wortsman: “All our vehicles are equipped with an AI dual-camera system that detects driver’s behavior, such as harsh events, cellphone usage, and traffic violations, to promote safer driving and improve driving behaviors.”
10. Tipping is encouraged. As a sticker in the car communicates to passengers, tips are “Never required, always appreciated.”
For more information, go to ridecircuit.com.
Got a question about life in South Florida? Send to Lois at AskLois@sunsentinel.com.