SALEM — The city’s affordable rideshare service, Salem Skipper, has seen a steady rate of growth since its launch four months ago, city officials said.
First introduced in December 2020, the Skipper, which is powered by technology from VIA, provides transportation to anywhere within Salem city limits for $2 per ride, or $1 for senior citizens, students, and people with disabilities.
Mayor Kimberley Driscoll said the program is part of an overarching effort to make the city less car-dependent.
“We’re only eight square miles, so lots of places are walkable, bikeable, and we felt that by having a rideshare service, we could help drive down (transportation) costs,” Driscoll said. “From an environmental point of view, it’s helpful to get cars off the road, and a shared ride service is part of the effort to make Salem greener and more liveable.”
Since its launch, Salem Skipper’s six vans have provided more than 8,200 rides to residents and visitors, and Driscoll said wait times for a driver average around eight minutes.
By reviewing data collected from past rides, she said officials tasked with analyzing the program have determined that residents and visitors use Salem Skipper for a wide range of reasons, from getting to and from work, making essential shopping trips, or avoiding poor weather conditions.
“When we rolled this out during the pandemic, we weren’t sure how popular it was going to be, but we’re up to almost 1,000 rides per week,” Driscoll said. “Every week we’re seeing more and more usage.”
Hailing a vehicle is meant to be simple, with riders able to request a ride on their phones through the Salem Skipper app, which is available for both iPhone and Android. Once they’ve entered a pick-up and drop-off address, users are then given an estimated pick-up time and location, much as they would get when ordering a ride through Uber or Lyft.
“All the rides are intended to be shared rides,” said David Kucharsky, Salem’s director of traffic and parking. “What VIA has developed is an algorithm that essentially acts as a dispatcher. It gets a call, and it’ll tell that individual to meet the driver at a particular intersection, and then once that individual is picked up, if another request comes in, the algorithm will decide whether or not that vehicle should be the one to pick up that next passenger, or it assigns another vehicle to get that passenger.”
However, he said it’s too soon to tell if the service has had a considerable impact on the city’s traffic patterns.
“As far as overall impact, it’s hard to know because traffic is already down in general because of the pandemic,” Kucharsky said.
Drivers are selected, vetted, and trained by VIA Transportation, and the service is available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
If Salem Skipper continues to see the success it’s had, Driscoll said the city hopes to work with other local leaders and expand to other communities with the aim of creating a ridesharing network that spans most of the North Shore.
“If you need to get into Boston, there are lots of ways to do that, but if you need to go from Salem to Danvers, or Beverly to Lynn, there aren’t a lot of ways to do that using any form of public transit,” Driscoll said. “We’re hoping to see an opportunity to grow this.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
