Categories: CityNews

Bike sharing program expected to launch soon

With one foot already on the pedal, Pittsburgh will soon gain another way to get around.

In the next few weeks, Pittsburgh Bike Share, an organization that will rent bicycles ride by ride, will launch a city-wide bike sharing program to provide students and residents another way to get around the city. David White, executive director for Pittsburgh Bike Share, expects the program, called Healthy Ride, to launch by late May or early June.

White said he was still finalizing plans for the launch with Pittsburgh Bike Share’s partners on Wednesday, which include Highmark, Allegheny Health Network and Walnut Capital. He could not give an official start date for the program.

Pittsburgh Bike Share has installed 10 bike dockingstations in Oakland, with one on Atwood Street and one on South Bouquet Street — none have bikes available for rent yet.

When the program does launch, riders can rent bikes with either a monthly membership or for a single use via the Healthy Ride mobile app, which is live now. Riders can rent a bike an unlimited number of times for 60 minutes a ride for $20 a month, or for about $4 an hour for the first four hours of a single use. It costs $24 to rent a bike for 24 hours.

Nextbike, a German company, will provide the bikes for the program and is powering the mobile app. On the app, users can view a map showing local docking stations.

According to its website, Bike Share Pittsburgh, a charitable organization which began in 2012,is an arm of Bike Pittsburgh, a nonprofit bike advocacy group based in Lawrenceville.

Bike Pittsburgh created the organization after local leaders, including planners in Pittsburgh’s city government and bicycle advocates at Bike Pittsburgh, expressed the need for a bike sharing system in the city.

The organization began raising funds for the bike sharing program in 2013. A year later, the City of Pittsburgh awarded a bid to install a bike share system to S.E.T., an Ohio-based general contractor, which is partnering with Nextbike for the program.

Pittsburgh Bike Share hired White to head the organization as its executive director in February. He’s planning a big event for the launch, he said, which is why he hasn’t announced an official start date yet.

“We want to do something fun for the launch,” White said. “We are working closely with all of our partners to finalize plans before we announce.”

Pitt News Staff

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