TAMPA — The Tampa Downtown Partnership is celebrating one year of its “Downtown Area shared Hubs,” also known as "DASH."

The transit service costs $2 per person and has 20 hubs from the University of Tampa area to Water Street and from the Florida Aquarium to the Amalie Arena.

What You Need To Know

  • The Tampa Downtown Partnership is celebrating one year of its “Downtown Area shared Hubs,” also known as "DASH"

  • More than 30,000 rides were completed with over 41,000 passengers that traveled an average distance of 1.07 miles

  • The transit service costs only $2 per person and has 20 hubs from the University of Tampa area to Water Street and from the Florida Aquarium to the Amalie Arena

  • The service is meant to complement existing transportation options like the Tampa Streetcar line, HART, or City Bike. The app will also direct you towards the best option to get to your destination

More than 30,000 rides were completed, with over 41,000 passengers that traveled an average distance of 1.07 miles.

“It definitely shows there is a need for this in our downtown,” said Director of Public Space Operations & Programming for the Tampa Downtown Partnership Rachel Radawec. “As it gains popularity, our goal is to keep it under a 15-minute wait time.”

All types of riders, from locals to students and tourists, use the option. The app is user-friendly, whether you know the area well or not.

“The way the app works is you don’t have to know where your specific hub is,” said Radawec. “You can just put in where you’re going and where you’re being picked up, and it will automatically assign that hub to you. You can also see features that talk about what things are to do and what popular locations people are going to. So there’s a little exploratory piece to it.”

The service is meant to complement existing transportation options like the Tampa Streetcar line, HART, or City Bike. The app will also direct you towards the best option to get to your destination.

“The app will prompt you to take the streetcar,” said Radawec. “We want to make sure that we are not taking anything away from what we do have.”

The electric vehicles came in handy after back-to-back hurricanes impacted the Tampa Bay region. DASH was back online two days after Hurricane Milton.

“With gas being so scarce and people not having food and needing to get around, it was wonderful to be able to provide that service.”

There are currently ten drivers who are also considered ambassadors of downtown.

On average, drivers get a 4.9 rating out of 5 for their service.

“Our drivers are part of our clean and safe program here at the Tampa Downtown Partnership,” Radawec added. “They go through an extensive training process. They spend two weeks doing training on kind of everything that our guides had, that’s concierge service, how to get around downtown, what’s happening in downtown, the landmarks to be able to speak, educated on everything that we have going on.”

One of the most popular DASH hubs is on Rayburn Court, which, during the Tampa Bay Lightning season, is a huge way to get to the games and sometimes from the games.

As new development is considered for downtown, the addition of new hubs will also be considered.

At one year and counting, the partnership says the service is helping people “dash” around downtown safely and affordably.