Dive Brief:
- North Miami Beach revamped its transit system in partnership with ProKel Mobility, a multimodal transportation provider. Launched in July, the system now includes three community shuttle bus routes and two electric vehicles for on-demand service.
- The transit system connects with Miami-Dade Transit, Tri-Rail commuter trains and Metrorail’s elevated transit system through a ProKel app.
- “We started looking at where the transit world is going, and we started seeing first-mile, last-mile, on-demand” service, ProKel Mobility CEO Kelly Gonzalez Jr. told Smart Cities Dive. “There's a big shift now going to that service.”
Dive Insight:
ProKel began working with North Miami Beach in 2021, according to Gonzalez, at a time when about 4,000 riders a month used the city’s transit system. Ridership is now up to 10,000 per month, he said.
The company redesigned the city’s transit network and purchased three new vehicles, with a fourth to come, according to a ProKel spokesperson. The company’s investment is anticipated to save the city over $1.5 million over the life of its contract with ProKel, the spokesperson said in an email.
“We looked at the system, we studied the data and then we redid the routes that made more sense for the city,” Gonzalez said. The revision reduced wait times on some routes.
ProKel works with about 17 cities and counties throughout the U.S., including Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida; Palm Beach County, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the company would announce an autonomous bus later this year but didn’t give any details. He sees these vehicles as a way to overcome driver shortages and open new routes. “We could put some of these vehicles in low-performing routes to help them perform better,” he said.
