Mike Ervin liked the idea when I first told him about bike share back in 2009. So did Andy Williamson- when I brought Bcycle from Boulder to the first Miami Valley Bicycle summit.

I took a slide deck out and presented it to, or talked with Dr. Hopkins at Wright State who loved it. Dr. Dan Curran at UD and I discussed over lunch in his private dining room where he seemed noncommittal, and people at Premier Health (who would be the ideal advertising sponsor) have had the proposal in their hands for years. Same goes for Sinclair, where Dr. Johnson has no interest in talking to me about it (he’s still mad that I’ve said Sinclair shouldn’t be in Warren County unless they pay a tax like we do to subsidize it- but, that’s another story).

RTA had a copy too- with Mark Donaghy liking it, but not sure about how it qualified for Federal transportation dollars (the Schuster Center got over $4 million from RTA and Federal dollars- more than enough to pay for an entire bike share system). It’s also been passed around Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission where it was filed in the good-idea-but-we-don’t-really-do-much bin.

It’s been on my campaign literature too- but, enough about what I’ve been doing for the last 4 years- now, it’s Andy and Scott making the rounds with the backing of Dr. Ervin, the man behind the curtain:

Andy Williamson, 32, and Scott Murphy, 34, share a love of recreation. Williamson is a regional director for the International Mountain Bicycling Association and Murphy is a recreational bicycle rider and mechanical engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

As representatives for Bike Miami Valley, an organization that advocates for bicycle-friendly public policy, the two are making the rounds of government officials, planning organizations and private business groups to discuss their research paper, “Miami Valley Bike Share Feasibility Study.”

It will be unveiled to the public Friday at the Miami Valley Cycling Summit in Springfield. The event is sponsored in part by Cox Media Group Ohio, owner of the Dayton Daily News. They provided an advance copy of the study to this newspaper.

Mike Ervin, co-chair of the Downtown Dayton Partnership, said pending new downtown housing units, including hundreds of student apartments planned for the old Dayton Daily News site at Fourth and Ludlow streets, as well as newly-created bike lanes on major arteries like Brown Street, would help make a bike share program a success.

via Public bike rental system proposed for Dayton area | www.daytondailynews.com.

Bicycle sharing systems are a game changer for Downtown parking, where people would no longer be tethered to parking in the core to get to buildings with limited or more expensive parking. It also makes possible housing, where people could live without the need of a car- since bikes that can haul groceries are readily available. I’ve ridden bike share bikes in London and Paris and know how easily these systems can transform your mobility.

BCycle called it a “magic bike” because when a system is installed with critical mass and effective re-balancing of the system, there is always a bike at hand. Besides being great for the environment compared to cars, it also encourages healthy exercise. Maybe now that Dr. Downtown has blessed my idea, we will see it happen. You can read much more about bike share in Dayton here: http://esrati.com/category/bike-share-in-dayton-ohio/