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This summer, visitors to the city will be able to hitch a free ride between the boardwalk and downtown Cookman Avenue on one of three electronic cars.

The Free Ride service, which also operates in the New York Hamptons, Palm Beach, Fla., and Santa Monica, Calif., will begin service Friday. The cars, similar to extended open-air golf carts, will carry up to five passengers and operate from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days per week until the weekend after Labor Day.

Whereas the Hamptons and Palm Beach Free Ride cars travel at random picking up passengers, the cars in Asbury Park will maintain a loop that travels down Ocean and Sunset avenues, Main or Kingsley streets, and Cookman Avenue, according to Kristina Bannon, one of the partners in the business. The route down Main Street from Sunset Avenue allows visitors to see a more of the city than just the boardwalk and downtown, and the route down Kingsley Street when there is high foot traffic due to shows and events allows the cars to be seen.

“I have a lot vested in the interest of Asbury Park and I’m dedicated to the revitalization in Asbury Park,” Bannon said. “We have a lot of people that come in and just don’t know what there is in Asbury Park outside of the beach, boardwalk and downtown.

The eco-friendly vehicles will make stops at specific locations, but if one is empty and travelling down the road people are welcome to flag it down and hop on, she said. Vehicle drivers double as city ambassadors, able to give recommendations on what the city offers and answer passenger’s questions.

Bannon, who owns boardwalk pop-up food businesses Pucker and Tony’s, partnered with John LiDestri, who works in food manufacturing, to bring the service to Asbury Park.

Waterfront redeveloper iStar Residential is one of the program’s title sponsors. The company runs the Asbury Park Waterfront marketing campaign, which launched its Summer Experience beach packages last summer. The carts will make a required stop at the Summer Experience beach house at the corner of Cookman Avenue and St. James Place, where beach package buyers have access to showers, lockers and other amenities.

“We’re literally driving traffic to the door at the information center,” said LiDestri at a training session held last week for waterfront employees. “We really see it as a good value to us to get out there to spread the word.”

Advertisements from sponsors that run on the side of the cars and on iPads inside of the vehicles pay to offset the costs for customers.

LiDestri tapped his contacts to bring sponsors from the food industry in, including a company that makes an antioxidant beverage made from byproducts of the coffee fruit, and one of his company’s own products, LiDestri’s Pink Limoncello, a pink version of the Italian lemon liqueur. National Geographic Channel has also purchased space to advertise a new television series, he said.

They are hoping word about the service spreads through social media, which should be easy considering the cars will also act as moving “selfie” booths. An application on each car’s iPad will allow customers to take photos of themselves and post them to social media while they enjoy their free ride.

Both the advertisement and iPads will be installed on the vehicles within the coming days, Bannon said.

Details about route options and set pickup locations is forthcoming on the The Free Ride website.

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