Hialeah Campus Students Can Now Utilize A Free Transportation Service
Students at Hialeah Campus now have a new transportation option and it’s free.
Freebee, a mobility company that offers rides at no cost in various municipalities, launched service in the city of Hialeah in August. The company said that about 100 people are using the app in the city daily and the average wait time is 10-15 minutes.
Four Tesla Model X cars have been assigned to the city of Hialeah. One of the vehicles is sponsored by Miami Dade College and includes a Hialeah Campus logo on the door panel.
“Students that may have some transportation difficulties, whether it be on an ongoing basis or just on a day to day basis, [this] gives them the opportunity to actually get free rides to the campus and back to their homes, work or wherever they’re going,” said Hialeah Campus President Anthony Cruz.
While the service is not available throughout the entire city (riders must check on the Freebee app) the cars accommodate four to seven people. Shared rides are allowed and cars are cleaned and sanitized every night.
“This service is for people that just don’t feel comfortable riding buses or having other people in the vehicle with them,” said Hialeah councilwoman Monica Perez, who spearheaded the efforts after seeing the need for a one-on-one, free and secure transportation system. “It absolutely became a goal of mine to provide that in an affordable way,”
Users must download the Ride Freebee app to request a ride. Commuters can track their driver in real-time. Service is available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The program is funded by a grant from the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization and capital funding from the city. Hialeah will have to reapply for the grant in two years.
There is not a limit on how many rides someone can request but the service does not travel past Hialeah. However, if a neighboring city uses Freebee, the passenger can be dropped off at the Hialeah city limit and then request a Freebee ride from the other city.
Some of the cities that offer Freebee include Doral, Miami Lakes, Pinecrest, North Bay Village and Palmetto Bay.
“A free service like this is great to alleviate the financial burden of transportation,” said Andrea M. Forero, the director of campus administration at Hialeah Campus. “The campus found that this would be an excellent resource for our students and staff, and decided to promote it so that our campus community could benefit from it as much as possible.”
