Council approves one year extension for Downtowner, but owner waivers
Manhattan Beach’s City Council wants the operators of the Downtowner to expand citywide.
The Downtowner “door to door” public transportation system was offered a one-year extension of its six-month-old pilot program Tuesday night. But during questioning by the city council, co-owner Sam Knapp said he could not commit to continuing the service under the terms of the unanimously approved council motion.
Following the meeting, Knapp said he would need further “clarification” from the city before deciding if his company would continue operating in Manhattan Beach.
Downtowner’s popularity could be the cause of its doom.
According to Knapp, the Downtowner’s six, six-passenger GEM electric carts have provided 13,722 trips to 31,000 people “at half the cost per passenger of other transportation systems” since beginning service last February. Its mobile app has been downloaded more than 10,000 times and 93 percent of riders gave the service a five-star rating.
But the service is offered only to residents west of Pacific Avenue, creating resentment among residents on the east side of town, contended Councilwoman Nancy Hersman, who lives east of Sepulveda Boulevard.
“The Downtowner needs to serve all residents, or none at all,” she said.
Councilwoman Amy Howorth argued, “It’s taking cars off the road so folks on the east side can get to Little League games more easily.”
But Mayor David Lesser concurred with Hersman.
“I’m concerned that we are cultivating division in our small, four-square-mile town,” Lesser said.
Knapp submitted a proposal for citywide service, which included replacing the six GEM golf carts with nine electric Chevrolet Bolts. But the proposal’s public subsidy of $727,435 made it a non-starter unless the funds were to come from a public agency other than Manhattan Beach.
“I won’t vote to put Manhattan taxpayer money toward this,” Councilman Steve Napolitano said. “Go down that road and we’ll be subsidizing rides when we have more urgent general fund needs. It’s nice environmentally. But it’s still a ride service, offered by Uber and Lyft. We don’t need to subsidize it.”
In addition to a one-year extension of the pilot program, the motion proposed by Howorth called for directing staff to research funding from the MTA and other government transportation agencies and to prepare a Request for Proposals for a citywide transportation service.
Following the meeting, Knapp said his industry is moving toward a public funding business model and away from the advertiser supported model. His Tampa Florida and Aspen Colorado Downtowners are almost entirely taxpayer supported, he said. Manhattan’s Downtowner is supported by advertising on the sides of its GEM cars. Knapp said Manhattan’s program is profitable, but a citywide program without public funding would not be.