Buggy is in very high demand in Miami, and for good reason. The traffic and layout of the city lend themselves to relying heavily on transportation services. It’s simply impractical for working parents to shuttle their children to activities and school without support. We launched back in 2019 with full knowledge that Buggy would take off here in Miami. But as we look to expand Buggy into other markets, here are four qualities we look for in a city:
1. Population Density
Buggy works best when routes are efficient and express-like. You can only do that, realistically, in cities with high population density. It doesn’t need to be New York-level to work well, but routes would be harder to put together in, let’s say, the suburbs. Miami is dense enough that we have routes where we pick up 3 or 4 kids from one building. High levels of need also create a “network effect” within a city, where parents see the Buggy in their neighborhood and then sign up.
2. High Commute Traffic
Needless to say, the demand for Buggy increases with higher levels of congestion, particularly around schools. That’s why we’ve grown the quickest at schools like Gulliver Prep, where just dropping your child in the morning can easily be an hour-long ordeal. When you look at cities like LA or New York, where commute times are exceptionally long, the burden of dropping kids at school and getting to work on time can be a challenge. Buggy helps alleviate some of the morning stress that families feel.
Gulliver's new 60,000 square foot, $40 million Center for Student Life at the Marian C. Krutulis PK-8 Campus.
3. Socioeconomics
Buggy is not--and likely will never be--the cheapest transportation option for families. For one, we’re door to door, which means that each child adds more time to the route than say, a school bus. Buggy will even walk kids into their extracurriculars if required. That individualized attention paid to each child, not to mention the flexibility of our services, make it costly to run. We are currently more affordable than the Uber-for-kids type services (like HopSkipDrive) but still at least double your yellow school bus.
While we may not be cheap, the value Buggy offers to families is exceptional and often allows them to pick their school of choice. Some families who join don’t quite realize how indispensable Buggy is to their lives until they start.
Onwards,
The Buggy Team