St. Louis, MO – April 26, 2022 – There is a movement happening in St Louis and it is electric. And it won't cost you anything. Electric shuttles are ready and roaming downtown, picking up passengers to perk up the local economy. 

“Today, we're officially launching the STL downtown link service,” 5th Ward Alderman James Page said at the Link’s ribbon cutting ceremony. “A free on demand shuttle service to pick you up where you are and take you anywhere you need to go downtown.”

The service is the result of a pilot program funded by the city using Federal American Recovery Plan Act funds, (ARPA). Page says he used the service himself.

“I used it to commute from my residence to the Downtown Neighborhood Association Office,” Page said. “And I absolutely loved it.”

The program is powered by a St Louis company called Labyrinth Smart Mobility.

“What we do is we collect data internally, no personal identifiable information, but we collect data on where we're picking up, what time of day, how long they waited, did they ride public transit,” said Mark Minden, the Executive Vice President of Business Development with Labyrinth Smart Mobility.  “And we provide that data to right-size the program and make database decisions.”

“So as the demand goes up, we will monitor that, and we can adjust accordingly,“ Minden said.

So for now there are two six-person shuttles running Monday through Friday between 9:00 AM and 2 PM and then 3PM to 8PM.

“Getting to where you need to go, including to your friends and everything like that is so important,” Downtown Resident Abby Buck said. “And Labyrinth Mobility is clearly helping provide that solution.”

For rider safety, each shuttle is partitioned, sterilized and camera monitored.  Minden says the program should be a driving force to get things rolling in the River City again.

“Access to mobility creates economic stability,” Minden said. “Downtown is back.”

“It is time for us to get out of the house. It's time for us to go experience each other again, have that human connection and human emotion, and that's what we're going to do,” Minden said. “We are going to literally connect people together and move them around and create these experiences downtown.”

The shuttles can be flagged down like a traditional taxi, called by phone, or via an app called Trip Shot.

“We have ambassadors to talk about the city,” added Minden.  “We will go all the way from Union Station all the way down to Washington Ave. Past there we go all the way to the new NGA, Cass Ave. We’ll go down to the river to the east and to the Arch and then over south we’ll go all the way to the ballpark.”

A family from Eastern Europe who rode the shuttle said the service came in handy for them.

“This our first time here in St Louis,” said tourist Togrul Amir.  “I was trying to use my Google maps to find this street when he stopped and said ‘I will take you to the aquarium’.”

“It is amazing to see the how people here support you. You know it's a free ride,” Amir said. “When I heard about that – that it is a free ride. You don't need to pay anything. So it was really, really amazing.”

Minden says that is what the program is all about.

“Seeing a family that comes to visit that didn't know what was happening in St Louis, and showing them that was an incredible feeling,” said Minden.  “And that's what's going to happen downtown. People are going to be able to get where they need to go and connect.”

--reporting for Labyrinth Smart Mobility, Rafer Weigel, StorySMART