The Opportunity: Helping Visitors and Residents Reach Local Destinations
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea sits on a barrier island east of the Intracoastal Waterway, spanning just under one square mile and about six blocks across from the Intracoastal to the Atlantic. It is a town built around the beach, being nominated as USA Today’s top Florida Beach Town of 2026, with a tourism motto that says it all: "Relax, you're here."
The community is walkable, stretching from the beach to the restaurants and shops of Commercial Boulevard, anchored by Anglin's Square, the town's quaint oceanfront district. Parking is limited, distances add up in Florida heat, and visitors needed a reliable, low-effort way to get from where they’re staying to the destinations they came to see.
The Challenge: A Beloved Town with a Last-Mile Problem
Lauderdale-By-The-Sea's appeal is concentrated in a small footprint, but that concentration creates its own mobility challenge. Visitors park wherever they can find space and then face a walk in the sun to the beach, the pier, or the restaurants on Commercial Boulevard. For older visitors, families with snorkeling or beach gear, or anyone who didn't want to spend their vacation sweating through a parking lot hike, that gap between car and destination was a real friction point.
The town had fixed-route transit options nearby, but fixed routes don't flex to match the irregular, on-demand movement patterns of a tourism-driven community. Visitors don't travel on schedules. They move when they're ready, to where they want to go, and they expect getting there to be seamless.
The Solution: A Branded On-Demand Shuttle Built for the Beach
The Town of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea launched Circuit-By-The-Sea as an on-demand service designed specifically around how visitors and residents move through the community. Three Circuit vehicles cover the service area, dispatched on demand through the Circuit app, connecting parking areas to the beach, hotels to Anglin's Square, and all the stops in between.
Visitors and hotel guests who park in town can catch a ride to the beach on Circuit-By-The-Sea's electric shuttle or they can avoid renting a car all together, and rely on Circuit to get them around the area with ease.
The Results: The 3-Car Fleet That Runs a Beach Town
With over 10,000 riders per month in 2026 alone, a volume that rivals programs operating far larger fleets, this service reflects both the density of demand in a small, visitor-heavy destination and a service that local riders are reliant on.
The efficiency numbers back that up. Over the past 12 months the average wait time has been under 9 minutes! In a beach town, that's a lot quicker than finding a parking spot.
Start Moving Your Community
If your city is looking for a smarter, more equitable way to connect residents to the places they need to go, Circuit can help you build it. Learn more here.
