Vanessa Abrahamson Blog: Can an Oversized Electric Cart Fix Cherry Creek Traffic?

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Can an Oversized Electric Cart Fix Cherry Creek Traffic?

Mike Sweeny lives in Denver and goes to hell and he loves it.

Mike Sweeny drives an electric vehicle through Cherry Creek. (Andrew Kenney/Denverite)

Mike Sweeny lives in Denver and goes to hell and he loves it.

The California-raised marketing dude drives a six-seater electric car through Cherry Creek on a sunny morning. At each stop sign, he looks in three different directions for oversized SUVs, neglectful teenagers and elderly pedestrians. This happens a dozen times on a typical loop through the boutique district.

Your vehicle is an all-electric Polaris GEM. It has all the upgrades – heating, air, doors, TV screens – and it sounds like a giant remote control car as it climbs to its top speed of 40km/h.

As Sweeny swings it around a corner, the oversized windshield fills an annoyingly mundane sight. This particular street is completely blocked by a construction crane.

“It’s such a headache,” he says to his three passengers. And that’s where he sees his chance. “That’s the purpose of Eco-Rides, right here.”

Eco-Rides USA is the free shuttle service that Sweeny launched this year with co-founders Miles Malone and Anna Rodriguez.

It’s one of several hyper-local transportation services introduced in Denver this year, including three-wheeled electric “eTuks” that operate on Broadway and River North on select days.

Eco-Rides is perhaps the most ambitious of the bunch, with its six-seat vehicles — they look like futuristic, pumped-up golf carts — patrolling Cherry Creek for passengers all day. Extra large batteries keep the two shuttles running for 12 hours on a single charge.

An Eco-Rides USA shuttle on November 17, 2017. (Andrew Kenney/Denverite) Denver; Colorado; denverite; andykenney; electric cars;

The idea, of course, is to give people an easier way to navigate the increasingly crowded blocks between University and Colorado boulevards.

“There is tremendous growth in this area and there are also challenges with parking here on the street. It’s an opportunity to work in this space,” said Rodriguez, who has a background in human resources.

“Our goal is to be the free version of Uber, Lyft in a given service area,” Sweeny said. And the community benefits, he argues, because a shuttle bus can keep cars off the road. In contrast, Sweeny points to the rows of Uber and Lyft cars that occasionally sit idle in front of hotels, waiting for passengers.

Eco-Rides’ business model is to sell advertising on the 10-inch screens inside the vehicle and on the outside of the vehicle itself, with prices for the video ads starting at around $250 a month — far cheaper than most physical advertising space.

Up to 150 people could ride in the free vehicle on a good day, Sweeny said. Most simply wave down and board, while some schedule pickup in advance. The five-month-old service hopes to add an app and operate additional shuttles on fixed routes.

Hotels and apartment buildings have been a strong source of growth, but most drivers still need some convincing.

“You won’t go with anyone for 15, 20 minutes,” Sweeny said. “You have to put a person in the cart, and then there’s a snowball effect.”

And he hopes so. While Cherry Creek was initially the only neighborhood expressing interest in the service, Sweeny says he’s getting more and more requests from communities across the city.

“We’re becoming a community facility,” he said. And while he still doesn’t enjoy driving through Cherry Creek, it’s a sacrifice he’s about to make now.

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