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Kansas City tries a pilot bike share program

Posted By David Esrati On In Bike Share in Dayton Ohio | 4 Comments

While Dayton waits for the $4 million paddle boat run, Kansas City is jumping ahead with a small Bike share program.

The pedaling population of Kansas City is expected to increase with the arrival of a bike-sharing program that has been a success in other cities.

Ninety sturdy bicycles will come rolling into downtown today to inaugurate B-cycle, a program intended to make it easier for people to get exercise while reducing automobile pollution.

The bikes will be parked at 12 docking stations sprinkled throughout downtown and will be available to anyone with a credit card.“It’s a self-service bicycle rental system,” said Eric Rogers, executive director of BikeWalkKC, an organization promoting B-cycle. “The idea is basically like Redbox, but for bikes.”

via Bike sharing rolls into Kansas City – KansasCity.com [1].

And of interest- one of the sponsors is a health care organization- Blue Cross, Blue Shield.

For a nice review, explanation and photos: http://maniger.blogspot.com/2012/07/one-more-step-kansas-city-b-cycle.html [2]

I’m not finding a price for the system, but when I was first investigating Bcycle for Dayton the cost was about $3,000 per seat. So KC probably came in around $300,000 for their small starter system.  In the post above- you’ll notice that the bikes are being sponsored by local business advertising as well.

Also- the Wikipedia entry for bike share has really improved: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system [3]

Now that Premier is trying to cram 1,000 people into a building at 2nd and Main- maybe they might realize that adding a bike share system could save time, money and parking issues for employees shuttling between the office tower and MVH main campus.

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David Esrati

And in other parts of the world- Bicycle highways:

From The New York Times:

COPENHAGEN JOURNAL: Commuters Pedal to Work on Their Very Own Superhighway

Denmark, already a cycling nation, is trying to encourage commuting to Copenhagen by bicycle by opening what it calls cycle superhighways.

http://nyti.ms/MGLTWw

Danish statistics show that every 6 miles biked instead of driven saves 3
 1/2 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and 9 cents in health care 
costs. But many cite happiness among the chief benefits of bicycle 
commuting.
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David Esrati

and Kansas City also got Google fiber….

http://youtu.be/amuKO83W1c4

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J Dziwulski

You are a prophet on this bike share thing.  It is taking off in the US.  Even Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is a lot smaller than Dayton, is implementing bike share. 

Yes we did get on that top 50 list but fairly far down the list.  More can be done re making things bike-freindly here!

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David Lauri

Bike sharing is coming to New York City: http://www.citibikenyc.com/

Citi Bike is a revolutionary new way for you to get around New York City, scheduled to launch in May 2013. Bike sharing expands your transportation options; it empowers you to go your own way.

Citi Bike is a self-service system that provides members with easy access to a network of thousands of bicycles. Pick up a bike close to home or work, ride, then return it to any of the hundreds of stations to be located throughout the city.

Citi Bike will consist of 600 stations, 10,000 bikes in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. It is to be privately sponsored by Citi and MasterCard and privately operated by NYC Bike Share LLC, with no public funding.

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