Hoppy Shuttle
We are proud to formally announce that Nyack will soon have an intra-Village shuttle service called “Hoppy” that will provide free on-demand transportation between locations within the Village.
The goal is to (1) give local residents a way to get around the Village without having to drive into the downtown, (2) give visitors who want to dine or shop another good parking option in the Marina Parking Lot, which they can use without having to climb any hills, and (3) connect the downtown area to the Route 59 commercial corridor including the hotels and the housing at Waldron Terrace. Ultimately, we’re trying to connect all the communities within the Village, expand parking options to reduce stress on the downtown street parking, and provide a viable alternative for short intra-village drives.
This is an idea I had about two years ago when I saw a GemCar shuttle operating in Santa Monica, California taking people to and from the pier there. I thought it would be a great feature for downtown Nyack, which is a small village physically but has hills that make some walking trips difficult.
Here are 10 things you need to know about the new Hoppy Shuttle:
1. ABOUT HOPPY. Hoppy is a six-person electric shuttle (5 passengers plus a driver) provided by a company called Gemcar, which currently provides shuttles for local areas like New Rochelle and Yonkers. The shuttle is a “Low-Speed Vehicle” with a top speed of 25 mph and is street-legal for any roads with a speed limit of 35mph or less (which is the entire Village, even Route 59). The Shuttle will have heat and air conditioning, radio, doors (which are optional!), and a bag carrier on the back for groceries and other items. The way the shuttle is set up, you have three rows and a door and two seats for each row, so there’s no pushing seats forward or awkwardly maneuvering into a third row. We have ordered the shuttle from GemCar and expect it sometime this summer
2. FUNDING GRANT. Funding for acquiring the shuttle is coming from a grant from Rockland County, for which I want to thank our County Legislator Beth Davidson, County Legislature Chair Jay Hood, County Executive Ed Day, Public Transportation Commission Douglas Schuetz, Director of Public Policy Steve Powers, and County Economic Development & Tourism Director Jenna Nazario.
3. OPERATIONAL FUNDING. The Village will provide the funding for ongoing operations out of a portion of the Hotel Tax paid by hotel guests at our three hotels, not from property tax or resident-funding. The hotel tax was passed with the understanding that part of the revenue would go to generating tourism, and we think that Hoppy will be a great draw for visitors to the Village and the hotels. We’re grateful for all the cooperation we got from the hotels and our state legislators in getting approval from Albany for the hotel tax.
4. ON-DEMAND SERVICE. Hoppy might run regular routes, but we’re also going to try it as an “on-demand” service that you can call through a web service, text, or app (not sure yet). You’ll need to get to a designated pickup spot within the Village, which will include spots at the edge of Upper and South Nyack and within other residential areas (although we might have door-to-door pickup available for people with mobility challenges). You also might be able to “flag down” a shuttle going by you, although we’re not certain about that yet.
5. SPECIAL EVENTS. The regular shuttle runs will be limited to the Village of Nyack, but we will likely also delegate the shuttle for use for special events, such as running regular routes from the downtown to Piermont for Bastille Day (so you can go without having to drive and park there), to Nyack Beach Park, or
6. BRANDING. The name “Hoppy” is used as an homage to our most famous resident, and also to connote the idea that it “hops around” the Village pickup up and dropping off people. We’re probably going to get some sort of logo and maybe a mascot -- and we might put it up for a vote whether to go with a frog or a bunny.
7. USER APP. We will have some sort of companion app or web service to provide not only a way to call for a pickup, but also to let people know where Hoppy is and whether it’s in service. I wrote a short memo explaining what we need here. If you have suggestions about how to get the app developed, or would like to pitch your services, just email me at joerand@nyack.gov.
8. HOURS. We don’t know the operating hours yet, and we’re not setting anything firm because we want to let the service evolve to how people need it. And we won’t know enough about that until it’s actually running. But assume that to start it will run Thursday-Sunday through afternoon and early evening hours.
9. ADVERTISING. We will partially fund operations of the service through panel advertising on the shuttle itself and maybe in the app. You can see some examples of advertising in the sample pictures. If you’re interested in advertising on the panels or the app, let me know via email at joerand@nyack.gov.
10. FREE! If it’s not clear, the service will be free. We’re hoping that the advertising offsets some of the operating costs, but we think that the benefits to residents and visitors (and thus businesses) of the service is worth the $30-40K we allocated in our recent budget.
We are very excited to see this plan finally get going, and we will keep you updated as we get closer to launch.
If you have questions or comments, please email me at joerand@nyack.gov.
