ORLANDO, Fla. — The city of Orlando hopes "Rideshare Hubs" will help get traffic out of the downtown area on the city's busiest nights safely and efficiently.
- "Rideshare Hubs" to launch this spring
- Program meant to improve traffic on busy nights
- Pilot program will last for 6 months
The city will launch a pilot program in the next few months with two Rideshare Hubs set up downtown. These hubs will be dedicated pick-up lanes for cabs and Uber or Lyft rideshare drivers.
The hubs would operate Fridays and Saturdays from midnight to 3 a.m.
One will be located on Gertrude's Avenue between Jefferson and Washington streets, and the other will be on Magnolia Avenue near Heritage Square, where the Orange County Regional History Center is located.
Downtown Orlando’s Nighttime Economy Manager Dominique Greco is helping implement the program.
“At that 2:00 a.m. time, because it is so chaotic, it tends to cause a lot of clustering, and that's when we find people bump into each other and that can trigger a fight or what have you. So we feel that these locations are going to offer more organization, more lighting, and additional security," she said.
Uber and Lyft are partners in the program. They'll be creating special functionality in their platforms to guide drivers and users to the closest hubs.
The city of Orlando says the hubs will also have access to public restrooms and extra lighting and security.
The city says the pilot program will last six months, and it hopes to use data on the program's effectiveness, and community feedback, to decide whether to keep it.