'The Squeeze' helps shuttle people into downtown Lakeland at lunchtime

all new it 6 a new Transportation option in Lakeland that's helping people squeeze the most out of their lunch break t Tempa Bay's era Glasser introduces us to The Squeeze welcome aboard the squeeze top speed 19 1 12 miles an hour now looping around lakeland's downtown area between 11:00 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday I think that would help a lot on the parking and that and help the people workers like Jill Lee think it's a great idea usually she'd have to pay for parking that is if she

could find a space because sometimes you can't even park there then you have to try and find a parking spot and then if you don't park in the right spot then you get a ticket The Squeeze with stops scattered along a strategic route is free to ride and with pickups every 6 to 8 minutes there's little if any waiting either I always have a hard time finding parking you have to pay for it if you have that now I can just come and have lunch and I don't have to worry wor about my car getting a ticket

and all that the City of Lakeland tried this same idea about a year ago but it didn't catch on this time the route is more streamlined closer to parking lots to draw people in from a little further out and extending to spots like the joinery a popular food Hall I've seen a significant increase in the traffic uh on and off the squeeze Jonathan bucko who owns the joinery says he and other local business owners are big proponents of the idea and glad the squeeze is back I think it's great for lakel

and's growth in general I think we need more density downtown um and I think that's the direction a lot of this is moving while the squeeze is free to ride it's not free to operate the city is paying citus connection about $60,000 a year to run the Monday through Friday lunchtime service after a few months they will re-evaluate but it's an investment that they hope will bring more business to downtown in Lakeland Eric Lasser 10 Tampa we should mention here the squeeze also operates on weekends a

nd that service has been proven to be very popular with about 200 to 300 people using it on Fridays 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8: to 3:00 p.m. and then again from 4 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.