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The Asbury Park City Council is in the final stages of developing two new programs that will help stay parking and traffic congestion with in the 1.4 square mile increasingly popular beach community.

Transportation Manager Michael Manzella has laid out what he calls high visibility and in demand locations for the car share program stations and introduced what will become a low cost continual jitney service for city residents and visitors. They include, respectively, stations and routes that will traverse throughout the downtown, waterfront and Springwood Avenue redevelopment zones.

Manzella put forth car share stations along the 700 block of Mattison Avenue, 300 block of Sunset Avenue and the 1300 block Mattison Avenue near Springwood Avenue Park. The former two spaces would include two car share and two charging spaces, while the latter would include two car share station but not charging option. 

At no cost to the municipality, the program will be administered by Greenspot, who will handle educational events, outreach and marketing, Manzella said. Chargepoint, an app for electric car owners, will also alert those motorists of the charging stations within the city limits.

“The car share program is really not meant for visitors coming into town,” Manzella said in answering Councilman Jesse Kendle’s concerns about bringing more cars into a community that is working to transform itself into a bike and pedestrian friendly modality. “I think that is part of it but I think it’s really for residents.”

Manzella outlined the city’s all too popular scenario of a two member household that shares one car.

“The other person probably doesn’t really need a car for work but they need a car to get around when the other person is at work to go to the grocery store [or] Target,” he said. “This is really to take care of that, and I think that is pretty prominent in Asbury Park.”

Manzella said they chose Springwood Avenue redevelopment zone because the neighborhood has some of the lowest car ownership rates in the community. Currently, there are three housing redevelopment projects underway that will result in hundreds of new homes within the southwest neighborhood.

“Having a car available when someone needs it just opens up accessibility for people,” Manzella said. “It may not be exactly the price point they need but it is an option…for when the need to go to that doctor’s appointment or the grocery store.”

And while the rates will be set by the Greenspot’s chosen operator, Manzella said the city will have an opportunity to weigh in, in order to keep costs as affordable as possible. Among those being vetted is GM’s AVID service, which features Chevy Volts at $8 to $12 per hour rates.

The City Council formally adopted a 2018 Jitney route plan Wednesday and an annual licensing rate of $125 per year.

Manzella said there is interest from a current jitney provider [Scooter Dudes of Red Bank] who wants to serve the community in a way that will not compete with the existing local taxicab services.

“He wants to make sure we stay on a route that serves the population that just wants to get from one area of town the other, without door to door service,” Manzella said. 

The adopted routes [shown above] accommodate the summer concert series held at Springwood Avenue Park, Manzella said.

Manzella said the current provider is looking at running three jitneys on continual loops at a proposed cost of $2.50 but they have limited the service to up to three providers per year.

Each jitney driver must get licensed by the city; similar to the taxicab licensing rates, he said. 

No vendor agreement has been made.

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