Centro San Antonio has launched a new downtown shuttle service that will provide free rides on electric vehicles throughout the downtown area.
Introduced Thursday at the UTSA School of Data Science, the pilot program is aimed at providing a short-distance transportation option for students and staff, downtown residents and visitors.
With the “meep meep” of a roadrunner, the six-seater shuttle gave test rides to students and officials following the announcement by Centro and UTSA officials. The Little Runner service begins Monday, March 18, with daily weekday service, starting at 7:30 a.m.
“The hope is that we will hear ‘meep-meeps’ throughout downtown as we shuttle students, staff and faculty from the parking lots surrounding downtown … as well as perhaps city employees from parking garages obviously over to City Hall,” said Centro SA President and CEO Trish DeBerry.
The service, operated by Austin-based eCab of North America, will continue through Aug. 31 when the test period is set to end.
Centro SA developed the shuttle service in conjunction with UTSA, VIA Metropolitan Transit and the City of San Antonio.
Over the past five years, “We have doubled the size of our campuses, [and] our students are coming and wanting to be downtown,” said Veronica Salazar, executive vice president for business affairs and chief enterprise development officer at UTSA.
“This initiative is in direct response to a great need from our own population to be able to enjoy downtown and serve our campuses better.”
But the service is not just for university-affiliated groups, she added. It is an experiment UTSA is helping to lead that it hopes will generate more electronic shuttles throughout downtown.
Micro-mobility services are not new in San Antonio. VIA began offering it through the VIA Link program in 2019, said Jeffrey Arndt, the transit service’s president and CEO, and provides over 9,000 passenger trips a week.
VIA also provides free transportation for UTSA students like Jayden Palacios, a senior computer science major, who takes the bus from his home on the East Side of San Antonio to the School of Data Science downtown, where he works and attends classes.
Another student, freshman Isaiais Pumarejo, said he relies on VIA for free rides from his dorm at the UTSA main campus to the downtown campus, where he is enrolled in architecture courses.
But UTSA doctoral student Ayda Eghbalian said she will probably start using the Little Runner to get from a student parking lot beneath the highway to the Data Science facility.
“It’s not that it’s a long walk, and I would definitely enjoy the walk,” she said, but the construction along Dolorosa Street makes it somewhat hazardous.
The Little Runner shuttles are similar to the five electric vehicles owned by SaGO owners Liz and Kevin Mancha and deployed in late December.
SaGO is an on-demand service, its e-trollies transporting locals and tourists short distances around places like the Pearl, Southtown, the St. Mary’s Strip and the Dignowity Hill Historic District.
SaGO was one of three companies that were invited by Centro SA through an informal bid process to submit proposals for the Little Runner pilot program, DeBerry said.
Salazar, who serves on the Centro SA board of directors, declined to say what factors led the organization to choose eCab as the Little Runner vendor over SaGO and EasyGo, another electric bus service.
But DeBerry said eCab’s proposal stood out for the pilot because of its experience and data collection capabilities. The company recently conducted a 14-month pilot program at Texas State University in San Marcos that had 10,000 passengers, said a representative from the company.
In addition, eCab is assuming all the liability, DeBerry said. “That’s a big one — we’re going to be transporting students obviously so that becomes very important.”
At a recent City Council meeting, DeBerry touted eCab’s capability to use data to deploy shuttles and meet demand. The data collected by the service can also be used for planning and implementing future, long-term micro-transit projects.
Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) asked DeBerry about the selection of eCab and why a locally owned company was not considered for the program.
“I know it’s just a pilot, but pilots give companies an advantage for competing for more long-term contracts,” she said. “And this is how we continually pass up on our local small businesses again and again.”
DeBerry said Centro is “very supportive” of SaGO and EasyGo.
“But they are very new to the market,” she said. “I think the beauty associated with this program is this should not be an ‘either/or’ conversation, but it should be an ‘and’ conversation, meaning we have very specific business objectives associated with UTSA and what they want to be able to accomplish, and I have to have this data.”
DeBerry said she hopes that the data from the pilot program will allow local companies to grow, especially for the NCAA Men’s Final Four in April 2025 or to service other areas such as Southtown. “We may have a separate ‘gastronomy pilot,’” she said.
A more formal bid process will be conducted if the Little Runner program continues beyond the test period, DeBerry said. But it’s unknown whether that will be released through Centro SA or one of the other partners in the project.
The $150,000 cost of the pilot program is being supported by Centro SA, UTSA and VIA. City Council is scheduled to consider a proposal to contribute $100,000 to the program at its meeting on April 4.
SaGO co-owner Kevin Mancha said he plans to attend the meeting and speak on behalf of his company. “We want to make sure that everybody knows that we are ready and able and capable and legally permitted to operate and willing — that’s our stance,” he said.
If the council does not approve the funding for Little Runner, DeBerry said she has other funding opportunities available, “because the appetite for this is strong.”
The Little Runner service is available by hailing the shuttle, calling or texting for a ride (210-802-6610) or using the eCab mobile app.
The service is scheduled to operate 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays. The service is not available at night.
