FREE DOWNTOWN SHUTTLES DEBUT
Planners hope buses bring workers, students and visitors downtown.
Years of discussion and planning culminated Friday with the first day of operation for the “Flyer” shuttles that will provide free transportation for workers, students and others traveling between the University of Dayton and the downtown core.
The buses — which will run on a short, continuous loop — are meant to be easy options to travel between job centers and entertainment, shopping, dining and drinking destinations without having to worry about parking or long walks in the cold or heat, officials said.
“This is huge,” said Mark Donaghy, CEO of Greater Dayton RTA. “It’s fast, it’s frequent, it’s free.”
The Greater Dayton RTA is funding about 70 percent of the new service, which is expected to cost about $1 million annually. The money will come from the agency’s $67 million operating budget.
CareSource and Premier Health are covering about 30 percent of the costs because their workers are expected to use the shuttles to get to work from parking garages blocks away, as well as get around at lunch and for work reasons.
Three free Flyer shuttles will run on a roughly 6.5-mile loop that extends from Brown Street at the University of Dayton to Monument Avenue at the northern end of Dayton’s Central Business District.
The route has 35 stops, at which the buses will arrive every 10 minutes or less. Officials hope that businesses see more foot traffic as more workers and visitors travel the route.
“It’s a ribbon tying together all of the great investments that have already been made — hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments in downtown Dayton as well as the UD area,” he said. “The Flyer service tries to connect those dots.”
CareSource employees will use the shuttle to conveniently get to work when they park in the Dayton Transportation Center Garage on South Jefferson Street or the City Hall parking garage on Ludlow Street, said Mark Heitkamp, CareSource’s vice president of enterprise services. CareSource’s headquarters is nearly a mile from the transportation center.
The shuttles also are expected to be popular among the University of Dayton’s 11,000 students. Students will use the Flyer shuttle to get to internships, employment during the summer, entertainment and classes at the Dayton Arcade when it reopens, said Eric Spina, UD president.
“I will admit, I’m partial to the name,” he said. “But more importantly ... the collaboration that’s resulted in what really is an import-
ant building block in cities today: transportation.”
Premier Health about six years ago decided to remain in downtown and move its headquarters to 110 N. Main St., said Eloise Broner, chief of shared services for Premier Health. The group has nearly 1,000 employees downtown.
The free Flyer bus service offers Premier employees a convenient way to travel to and from Miami Valley Hospital, which it owns and oper- ates, Broner said.
She said the Flyer will showcase how much the city has to offer residents, workers and visitors.
“Downtown is truly building momentum — not just as a place to work, but as a popular place to live and a hub of entertainment, through sports, the arts, festivals and numerous other points of interest,” Broner said.