Port Commissioners last week unanimously approved contributing the funds from the district's Maritime Industrial Impact Fund to cover the program's fifth year of operation.
Free Rides Around National City, or FRANC, is a zero-emissions shuttle program the city uses to boost transportation options while also lowering its carbon footprint. It's similar to San Diego's Free Rides Everywhere Downtown (FRED) shuttle and one in Oceanside, where people request rides via an app similar to the ones used by rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft.
National City thought the program would be ready for use by the fall of 2022, but project cost increases and components like finalizing a service area and determining hours of operations caused delays.
The city also had to secure an operator. Last month, council members awarded a $2 million, three-year contract to Circuit Transit Inc., which also manages the FRED and a senior shuttle program in Chula Vista.
Circuit will provide on-demand service seven days a week. Rides will run from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. It will manage three electric shuttles, each of which can fit up to five passengers and a driver. The service area will cover the city's west region, or everything west of Interstate 805.
The project is mostly being paid for by a $1.5 million voucher from California's Clean Mobility Options Program, which funds projects that aim to increase access to transportation options in disadvantaged communities while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Funds cover one year of designing the project and three years of operations. The voucher program required the city to have the FRANC running in its fifth year, but it would not be funded by the voucher. Former city engineer Roberto Yano had estimated the city needed about $400,000 to be covered.
That's where the Port stepped in. Commissioners said helping to fund the FRANC initiative fell in line with other recently approved efforts to increase public access to the San Diego Bay, including a permit to upgrade a portion of Pepper Park and a master plan to transform its waterfront into a more desirable destination.
Port Chairman Rafael Castellanos said he has heard stories about children who are raised without ever visiting the bay.
"It's hard to wrap your head around that idea, that living in this beautiful county, in this beautiful region, that there are families that are so under-resourced or face such obstacles that their kids don't ever have the opportunity," he said. "They're essentially on an island in their own neighborhood."
National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez told commissioners he is confident ridership will be successful, especially because South County has the highest transit ridership across the county.
City staff said the FRANC will be running by Labor Day.
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