Port Jeff Village to pioneer PASSPort, a municipally operated rideshare service

BY RAYMOND JANIS EDITOR1@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

Village of Port Jefferson officials are currently rolling out PASSPort, a first-of-itskind rideshare service tailored for within-the-village transit.

Kevin Wood, the parking and mobility administrator in PJV, worked closely with the village Board of Trustees to develop the software and systems to accommodate PASSPort. Now the service is undergoing beta testing, with plans for public use along the horizon.

PASSPort functions similarly to other popular platforms in the private sector, tapping into the same technologies used by services such as Uber but repurposing them for local municipal oversight and administration.

Under the current plan, Wood said the program remains flexible, subject to villagers’ evolving needs. “There is no parallel to this on Long Island,” he said.

While the village has attempted to administer similar transit services in the past, Wood held that PASSPort represents a significant departure from any past or current offerings. “The closest you came to this were crosstown electric car methods that, in Port Jefferson, have proven to not work for various reasons,” he said.

He added that through PASSPort, the village government hopes to move away from the public perception surrounding those previous models, which he said were ill suited for winter weather and unable to traverse the area’s steep hills.

Wood noted the various opportunities for residents to make use of PASSPort. According to him, the platform could potentially enhance mobility for those traveling to village beaches, elderly residents unable to operate a car and residents traveling downtown.

Although some apps, such as Uber, bar minors from accessing their service, Wood kept open the possibility in Port Jeff, saying that the village is working through legal parameters of creating a parental authorization process to enable the pickup and drop-off of local students.

The parking and mobility administrator also touched upon the subject of PASSPort vehicle operators. For him, the vehicles would ideally be operated by professional, third-party drivers who would be “exclusive to us for that night” during a designated period.

“We want them to have a certain amount of professional aspect to what they’re doing,” he said. “That’s an important part of this — to monitor not only the integrity of the service itself and timeliness but the courtesy of the driver.” Given the program’s flexibility, he said he could foresee accommodating multiple drivers a night if needed.

Pricing is also variable, with Wood hoping to learn more about this facet of the program as the program rolls out for public use. Measuring PASSPort against taxicabs and other rideshare methods, he foresees clear advantages to the