The city of Oakland recently announced via Twitter that the popular Broadway Shuttle - "The B" - will extend its hours and route, beginning in early July.

The free shuttle will run until 1 a.m. on Fridays, instead of the current end time of 7 p.m. For the first time, The B also will regularly run on Saturdays, from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Passengers should expect no more than a 15-minute wait during these new evening hours.

The evening route will be longer than the current daytime route. The B will run from Jack London Square north to 27th Street, instead of its current turnaround at Grand Avenue. The B will run along Telegraph between 15th and 20th streets.

The shuttle will continue running with 10-minute frequencies during commute and lunch hours and 15 minutes during other times on its regular weekday route from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Is the new schedule and route a result of the burgeoning nightlife in the Uptown district?

Since the first free shuttle rolled down Broadway last August; Dogwood, Xolo and Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe all have opened on Telegraph between 15th and 20th streets.

"The good news isn't just that so many restaurants, bars and clubs continue to open, but also that so few are closing," explained Zach Seal, manager of the Broadway Shuttle Project for the city of Oakland. "So the total number of restaurants and other nightlife opportunities just continues to grow in downtown and uptown. The new shuttle hours will support this economic growth.

The new service is actually thanks to a $200,000 grant from the Alameda County Transportation Commission's Transportation Fund for Clean Air. That's enough to keep The B running its new route for an entire year.

The casual lunch-goer might just see The B as a convenient ride, but the shuttle is designed to serve a very serious purpose - getting cars off the road. The extension is designed to get even more people to leave their cars at home.

"What we're hopeful will happen is, because nighttime service exists on Fridays, is that more people will commute to work by transit," Seal said. "While the current service is convenient for people who commute to work and come home by 7 o'clock, a lot of people want to go out for cocktails or dinner and with the later shuttle, now they won't be stranded. We're eliminating that problem and hope they'll leave their cars at home."

The B began running in August 2010 thanks to a $1 million annual grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and contributions from private donors. Since then, ridership has grown to 2,700 people a day. That's a lot of cars off the road and more people exploring Oakland's communities.

"From the Air Quality Management District's view, their goal is to reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled and to get people that drive into Oakland to either take BART, Amtrak or the ferry," Seal said.

"The city has two goals," he continued. "One, we want to attract office tenants to the downtown area and a lot of companies are telling us that to attract the best and brightest employees, they need to locate in transit-rich environments so their employees don't have to drive to work. Second, we want to support our local retail and dining establishments. With The B, we're encouraging them to explore all the different districts for lunch during the day. Now they can stay into the evening, and as the downtown area continues to grow, we want to tie it into the surrounding neighborhoods to serve uptown and Broadway-Valdez."