ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Finding solutions to a problem, the city of Annapolis has an app for that.
It’s a rideshare app and the ride only costs you two bucks. "Annapolis Go" just started 10 months ago and just this week it added more routes.
It's a rideshare app made local, Annapolis Go started in May of 2022, it gives you an easy way to get around the city since the rebuild of the downtown Hillman Garage.
"When we started to rebuild our new garage, we worked with a variety of mobility options. This is an on-demand mobility option the city introduced for the period of the construction of the garage,” said Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley.
The rideshare was brought about in partnership with Via, a rideshare company that blends public transit and standard car ride.
When requesting a ride, it matches you with a driver and other people heading in the same direction.
"It's a shared thing. I know Uber and Lyft share but there can be up to five or six passengers in the vehicles we use,” said Buckley.
"It is one of those that has a geofence where you put in your location to where you're going. So it's not quite like Uber going right to your destination but it could be or it could be very close,” said Markus Moore, the Director of Transportation for Annapolis.
"I already gave it five stars,” said Santi Tantori who used Annapolis Go for his first time, and says the app was easy to navigate. "It was good, it was easy, it was very convenient. I don't have a car here and I had to come from the stadium to downtown and it was easy."
While there are still the options of a bus, trolly, bike and scooter to get around, Annapolis Go makes it more flexible and for a set price. The app runs about seven miles around the city for only $2 per person and $1 per additional person.
And unlike Uber or Lyft, the drivers have a set hourly pay, not dependent on the number of rides. Also there is a company van to use.
The city pays the drivers with money from the finance package of rebuilding the garage.
"I think that's a little less pressure for the drivers and as many drivers as I’ve spoken to that have moved over from Uber and from Lyft say they prefer this method,” said Buckley.
The process of using the app is just as easy as the price.
Moore said, "You're going to download Annapolis Go, turn your location finder on, and put in the destination where you would like to go."
Mayor Buckley says the trial period of the app is supposed to run until June when the Hillman Garage is complete, but with such success they city is looking to keep it around.
And the expansion is coming at a perfect time, the big Annapolis St. Patrick’s Day parade is happening on Sunday.
So, if you don’t want to deal with parking, you can park just outside the city and use Annapolis Go and the green van will bring you to the party.
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