"One is to alleviate some of the stress on the downtown parking, some of the demand," Mayor Joe Rand told News 12 Westchester in May, describing a six-person electric shuttle that was still a plan at the time. "It's also for mobility issues for some of the people who might have them."
That shuttle is called Hoppy. The Village of Nyack launched it on Friday, October 30, and set regular service to begin this first week of November, running Thursday through Sunday. Only one regular shift has a published time so far. On Thursdays Hoppy runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Village says those hours were chosen to serve the downtown Farmers' Market.
The Village built the schedule around Thursday morning, and the vehicle's legal limits fix how far it can go. Hoppy moves people around a few square blocks of Nyack, and its one fixed shift falls on the morning those blocks have the least parking.
A Ride Area Set by Speed Limits
Hoppy is a GEM electric vehicle that holds six people, five passengers plus the driver. New York classifies it as a Low Speed Vehicle, so it may only use roads with speed limits of 30 mph or less. In the Village's words, that covers every road in Nyack "as far west as Waldron Terrace," but the shuttle "cannot, say, drive you to the Palisades Mall." The Village's own reply to that is "Shop local!"
Pickups and drop-offs both have to be inside the Village of Nyack. The one exception is special occasions, when the Village says Hoppy will drop riders in Upper Nyack or South Nyack. On a normal day, the trip starts and ends inside the Village.
Riding works like this:
- Download the free Ride Circuit app and set up an account. The Village says this takes about five minutes.
- Open the app to see whether Hoppy is running, then request a ride. The app shows estimated pickup and drop-off times, much like Uber or Lyft.
- You can also hail Hoppy on the street. The driver will stop if there is room and a safe place to pull over.
- Plan on sharing the ride. The app sends the driver along the most efficient route for several pickups, so a trip can include a small detour.
- Riders using the app or hailing must be 16 or older. Younger passengers need an adult with them.
- A rack on the back holds small bags and packages.
Rides are free. The Village lists what the shuttle is meant to reach: local businesses, the Farmers' and Flower Markets, bus stops, and the Marina parking lot. On Thursdays, it also stands in for parking spaces the market takes over.
Thursday, When the Market Takes the Lot
The Nyack Chamber of Commerce describes the Nyack Farmers' Market as a four-season outdoor market in the Main Street parking lot. It runs Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. from May through December, then 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. from January through April.
The Village's parking map shows the cost. The Fresh Market Lot on Artopee Way, south of Main Street, is closed every Thursday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., all year, for the market. A small group of spaces on the east side stays open as free one-hour parking.
Here is how the Thursday schedules line up this month:
| Thursday in November | Hours |
|---|---|
| Fresh Market Lot on Artopee Way closed for the market | 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Nyack Farmers' Market | 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
| Hoppy's Thursday service | 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
| Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center | 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., closed Thanksgiving |
Hoppy's Thursday shift ends when the market closes, and it runs entirely within the hours the lot is closed. In the News 12 report, the mayor gave parking demand as the first reason for the shuttle. The schedule follows that reasoning. On the weekday when the Village gives one of its downtown lots to the market, it puts a free vehicle on the streets for the three hours before the market closes.
The market still runs through the winter on shorter hours. In January, its 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. window will overlap Hoppy's current Thursday hours for only two hours, from 11 to 1. The Village has said more regular hours are coming, and the earlier look at Nyack's year-round calendar covers why the market never really closes.
Paid For by Overnight Guests and Advertisers
According to the Village, a $50,000 grant from Rockland County paid for the vehicle. Running it is a different line item. The mayor told News 12 that operations would cost $30,000 to $40,000 and be "covered by a hotel tax that we put into place a couple of years ago, so no property tax money is being paid for this." He also said he planned to cover part of the operating cost with advertising for local businesses on the shuttle.
The Village's launch announcement thanks Rockland County, the Board of Trustees and "two inaugural advertisers." It says a wrap of custom imagery will go on the vehicle "very soon."
Downtown shop owners spoke in favor of the idea before launch. "Parking is always kind of a drag, as it were. That will eliminate some of that aggravation," John Dunnigan, owner of Pickwick Book Shop, told News 12. Caroline Spindel, a part-owner of The Rock Shop, told the station, "There's always an option for them to get a free ride into town and peruse the town and spend some money here."
Hotel guests pay the tax that runs the shuttle, and the shuttle carries riders only on the Village's own streets, past the Main Street businesses that may also advertise on it.
The Driver Knows the Village's History
The Village says the name honors Nyack's famous resident, the painter Edward Hopper, and is also a play on hopping around the Village. The driver is JP Schutz, the Village Historian, whom the Village calls "a wonderful ambassador to the Village." Riders get a local historian behind the wheel.
The ride also makes the Hopper connection easy to visit. Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center is at 82 North Broadway. It is open Wednesday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., and closed Monday and Tuesday. On Thursdays, Hoppy's last hour overlaps the museum's first hour. On Fridays through Sundays, both are scheduled to run, though the Village has not yet posted Hoppy's weekend hours.
The current exhibition is Susan Chen: Rooms by the Sea, on view through February 21, 2027. It is the New York-based artist's first museum solo show. Her plein air paintings of Cape Cod hang alongside works on paper and watercolors by Edward Hopper and Josephine Nivison Hopper. The centerpiece is Chen's large 2026 double portrait Rooms by the Sea, a direct tribute to Hopper's 1951 painting of the same name, which shows his Truro studio and is owned by the Yale University Art Gallery.
The museum closes on Thanksgiving Day, which is Thursday, November 26 this year.
The River End of the Route
One of the destinations the Village lists for Hoppy is the Marina parking lot. The Village describes the Marina as a Village-owned facility on the Hudson's western shore, between Burd Street on the north and the inlet by Memorial Park on the south. The marina parking lot was repaved in 2023 and 2024.
The waterfront next to it changed this year. The Village's capital projects page reports that work on the Memorial Park Shoreline Pathway started March 30, 2026 and was finished by June 30. The project rebuilt and redesigned the waterfront path from the fishing pier to the pedestrian bridge, adding new landscaping, seating and overlooks, better lighting, and spaces set aside for public art and memorials. A-Tech Concrete built it from a design by Weston & Sampson, made with an advisory committee of Village staff and park stakeholders. Funding came from $412,276 from the New York Department of State and a $139,092 Village match.
With Hoppy, the trip from the new path at the Marina up to Main Street can be a free ride.
Links to the Buses
The shuttle also connects to the bus network. Hudson Link lists a Nyack stop at Artopee Way and Franklin Street, plus one at Route 59 and Mountainview Avenue, on route H05, which runs to White Plains, and on route H07, which runs between Spring Valley and Tarrytown.
Transport of Rockland runs route 59 between Nyack and Suffern and routes 91 and 92 between Nyack and Spring Valley. Its timetables list Nyack/Artopee Way as a stop. Route 59 also stops at Nyack Hospital and at Route 59 and First Street.
Artopee Way runs past the market lot as well as these bus stops. A Thursday rider can come in by bus, take Hoppy to the waterfront or North Broadway, and come back for the return bus, all without a car. The Village called the program "a learning experience for all of us" and asked riders to be patient while it works out the most efficient way to run it. Checking the Ride Circuit app before heading out is the easiest way to see whether Hoppy is running at that moment.
If you want to talk through what a walkable Village footprint like this means for a home you own on one of these streets, The Molfetta Team can go through it with you, block by block. Visit our Nyack neighborhood page or book a consultation.
