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Boca Raton updates Boca Connect ridership and autonomous-shuttle pilot; ADA access and budget analysis requested
Summary
Public works staff told the Community Redevelopment Agency Boca Connect passed 3,500 total passengers in November and faces capacity limits during peak times; commissioners asked staff to run a budgetary analysis on adding vehicles and pressed for clarity on ADA access for the autonomous-shuttle pilot.
Zach Beard, Boca Raton’s Public Works Engineering Director, told the Community Redevelopment Agency on Dec. 15 that Boca Connect surpassed 3,500 total passengers in November and has grown since its June 2024 launch. Beard said average wait times have held near 7 minutes, 45 seconds and the program targets a 10-minute headway with a 95% connection-rate goal, but that connection rates sometimes fall into the mid-80s during peak dining hours.
"In November, we surpassed, hit the 3,500 total passengers mark," Beard said. He cautioned that demand spikes during peak periods can force the system’s algorithm to prioritize riders to maintain headways, producing temporary dips in connection rates.
Commissioners asked staff to analyze the budgetary implications of adding vehicles. "Can you do a ... budgetary analysis of what that would look like from a budgetary standpoint?" the Chair asked. Beard said staff would prepare operational and financial reports and work with CRA finance to model the cost and level-of-service tradeoffs.
Board members also pressed Beard about an autonomous-shuttle pilot (referred to in the presentation as MICA/Mika). Beard described the pilot as a fixed-stop service: "there's gonna be 5 stops, showing up on the map ... it isn't an on call service. It's going to stop at these specific locations," operating initially Thursday–Sunday, 5–8 p.m., with schedule amendments planned in late January.
Several commissioners raised accessibility concerns after Beard confirmed the pilot vehicle itself is not ADA accessible. "I have been approached by people in the ADA community about that," the Chair said. Beard responded that the Boca Connect contract requires an ADA van as part of overall service and that the autonomous vehicle will be blended into Boca Connect operations to ensure ADA needs are met.
Commissioners urged staff to evaluate how introducing autonomous shuttles could change Boca Connect ridership patterns — for example, whether the shuttle would shift short downtown trips onto the autonomous service and change demand for Boca Connect vehicles coming into downtown. Beard agreed staff will examine interaction effects between the autonomous vehicle pilot and Boca Connect in the upcoming budgetary analysis.
The CRA did not take a vote on operational changes; staff committed to preparing data and cost estimates for future meetings.
