Will Bike Share Fit Your Community?

Bicycling is a freeing and immersive experience, allowing you to get places quicker than walking, but also more intimately than behind the steel frame of an automobile. When traveling by bike, you often say “Hi” to other people passing by.

When biking, you notice the little changes within your community, such as seasonal flowers or new merchandise in store windows. While motorists are stuck in traffic, you can often breeze past on a shared-use path or bike lane. Instead of searching for a parking spot, you can ride directly up to a business and lock your bike on a bike rack or utility pole.

But what happens when you do not have your bicycle with you? Maybe it needs some maintenance but you haven’t had a chance to get to the bike shop. Perhaps you work far from home or go on a vacation.

What is bike share?

In a bike share system, many benefits of biking are available without needing your personal bike. Bike share can be ideal for trips that are too long by foot but too short or inconvenient via transit or automobile. While bike share systems have been around since at least the 1970s, they have become popular over the past decade in cities and on college campuses.

I work in Detroit, and colleagues and I have used shared bikes to reach meetings in Midtown where parking is scarce. I’ve also used it to get to West Riverfront, a place too far to walk during a lunch hour. I’ve used bike share on weekends when I brought my daughters to the Dequindre Cut. I was able to throw the kids’ bikes in the back of the car and check out a bike for myself rather than trying to set up an elaborate bike rack on the car’s trunk.

You may be wondering, “How is bike sharing different than renting a bike?” There are several differences:

1. Bike share systems are typically suited for short-term bike trips within a small geographic area. Bike rental systems encourage renters to use bikes for longer, recreational trips anywhere they like.
2. Bike share stations are usually small and strategically placed across a community, allowing users to check out and return bicycles without the assistance of on-site staff. Bike rental systems usually have a single location. While a bike share station can be on the sidewalk or in a plaza, a bike rental location is usually inside a bike shop or building.
3. Since bike share focuses on short trips, users will likely use more than one bike per day or week, while with a bike rental, users typically ride the same bike.
4. For short trips, bike share memberships/passes are likely cheaper than renting a bike. People who plan to use bike share regularly can purchase monthly or annual memberships, while people who only need to use it a couple of times can purchase a day pass.

How do I know if bike share fits my community?

Port Huron Mayor Pauline Repp says that bike share “makes sense given our tourism industry, River Walk, and downtown.” St. Clair County Community College students and Blue Water Transit users contribute to the demand as well.

Bike Share stations in Port Huron help transit users and tourists travel farther and faster

Earlier this year, the City of Detroit opened its first bike share system called MoGo, partly funded via a SEMCOG Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant. It includes over 420 bikes at 42 locations across greater Downtown, Midtown, New Center, and the riverfront. It cost over $2 million to install, and requires a significant amount of resources to operate and maintain through over 20 different partners. MoGo released a great video that summarizes the system, its benefits, and the grand opening celebration.

Smaller communities might feel intimidated at the size and costs of such a project and decide that bike share is not for them-that bike share is only for those “big cities or college towns.” However, small towns across the country are exploring the bike share concept. In fact, there are at least 10 systems that have been developed or are being developed in Southeast Michigan, including:

• Ann Arbor
• Brownstown Township
• Dearborn
• Detroit
• Flat Rock
• Port Huron
• Southfield
• Warren
• Wyandotte

Generally, these communities are starting small with a few bikes and/or stations. The leading provider of these systems is a company called Zagster, used by eight of the 10 systems in our region. It’s an option that lets communities “test ride” bike share to determine the right combination of stations, bikes, and sponsors to make the system work. Before MoGo launched in Detroit, some downtown businesses set up a Zagster network for their employees.

Communities often use bike share to accommodate increased daytime populations related to tourism, business, or education. Cristina Sheppard-Decius, DDA Director for the City of Dearborn, says that the city’s bike share helps to “connect tourist, entertainment, recreation, downtown districts, and university and corporations locations/assets.”

Riders enjoyed Dearborn’s Bike Share at opening day of the John D. Dingell Transit Center

Communities can also capitalize off the success of bike share to help implement other goals and priorities. For example, Detroit’s MoGo now has a program to teach biking street skills to residents. The program consists of two separate workshops – one that teaches biking basics, the other that teaches people how to bike in an urban environment. Such a program can go a long way in promoting road users to “Share the Road” and walk, bike and drive safe. Lisa Nuszkowski, Executive Director for MoGo Detroit Bike Share, says that bike share is “more than putting bikes on street,” but rather “a tool to achieve other goals for a community including bike safety, mobility, and relationships.”

Can my community afford bike share?

With costs starting at approximately $1,200 per bike, bike share requires capital to implement. However, local sponsors can defray the cost significantly. In Brownstown Township, Flat Rock, and Wyandotte, each system’s initial year was sponsored by Community Choice Credit Union. These communities are now looking for new sponsors.

The Southfield City Centre Advisory Board, made up of major businesses and property owners in the district, sponsored the first full year of the city’s bike share from their Special Assessment funds. In Port Huron, partners included the DDA, Blue Water Transit, St. Clair County Community College, and the Blue Water Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Dearborn’s partnership includes Beaumont Hospital, Healthy Dearborn, Downtown Dearborn, and local business leaders. In Warren, the program is sponsored by General Motors and available only to its employees.

GM Employees checking out bikes in Warren

A major theme across bike share communities is the importance of a strong coalition of partners – including public, private, and nonprofit entities as well as residents. Lisa Nuszkowski, of MoGo Detroit Bike Share, mentioned that sustained public outreach is the reason for initial success. Terry Croad, Southfield Planning Director, stressed the need to instill a sense of ownership among local entities such as schools, business, and residents before launching the service. In the words of Mayor Repp, “Don’t go it alone. Get a group of stakeholders together to make it happen. Each stakeholder represents a different use of the bike and funding source.”

Southfield’s bike share system includes adult tricycles, which are a great alternative for people with strength, agility, or balance issues. They also help you stand from the crowd!

A key aspect to launching a bike share, as with any new initiative, is to treat it like a business -a community must understand all the costs, market the service, and ensure it meets the needs of local residents and visitors. Sean Reed of Clean Energy Collation, the agency that runs ArborBike says, “Do your due diligence not just in terms of initial capital costs, but also the expected operating costs. Be sure you have a plan and an entrepreneurial organization to execute and adapt the business model to your community’s unique needs and funding environment.”

While bike share may not be appropriate for all communities, it can be an important part of a community’s economic development, mobility strategy, and quality of life.