Kim Burley, deputy assistant director of the city's fleet management department, said the contractor, B-Cycle LLC, will have 120 days to get the system up and running. The company also installed San Antonio's system and those in Chicago, Denver and other cities.
Bicycle-sharing program will start in downtown Houston - Houston Chronicle
Imagine a Houston where you could step from a light rail station, rent a bicycle for a nominal sum and pedal to your destination. The only greenhouse gas you'd emit would be your own carbon dioxide as you huffed and puffed along. Rather than fretting about burning noxious gasoline, you could gloat about burning calories.
The Houston City Council this week took the first step in putting such a system in place by awarding a $105,000 contract to a Wisconsin company to install three solar-powered bike kiosks in downtown.
The plan for the so-called Bike Share Houston program is to intrigue residents and visitors with the technology, then raise funds to install additional locations. The effort is modeled after one started last spring in San Antonio.
The Alamo City now has 20 bike share kiosks at such destinations as the Alamo, Hemisfair, La Villita, the city's convention center and central library. About 1,000 San Antonio residents have purchased yearly memberships in the program since the first bikes rolled in April.
Bike Share Houston - a joint project of the city, Bike Barn and the nonprofit Bike Houston organization - will begin with kiosks at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Market Square and downtown's Central Library.
Kim Burley, deputy assistant director of the city's fleet management department, said the contractor, B-Cycle LLC, will have 120 days to get the system up and running. The company also installed San Antonio's system and those in Chicago, Denver and other cities.
Just a beginning
Bike Houston president Darren Sabom said the three kiosks and their 18 bikes are designed to show Houston residents how the system works. Ultimately, with the help of donors and grants, additional kiosks may be added at select light rail stops and other locations.
Such a network of kiosks could help residents and visitors navigate the Rice University campus, Hermann Park, the Museum District and the Texas Medical Center.
"After stepping off a bus or train, it would fill the gap of the last five blocks of your trip," Sabom said.
Sabom said the cost to bike users has not been determined.
In San Antonio, users of the bike share system buy a pass - $10 for a day, $60 for a year - that gives them access to the bicycles. They then may use a bicycle for 30 minutes. The bikes must be checked in to a kiosk every half hour to avoid paying a late fee but can be used for sequential 30-minute periods throughout the system's 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. business day.
"This is supposed to be a system for sharing bikes with other people," said San Antonio Bike Share's Caleb Shoate. "This is designed for quick transportation from one point to another."
San Antonio success
The bikes, equipped with GPS systems, lights, cup holders and cargo baskets, are designed to easily adjust to riders of all heights.
Computerized equipment notifies system operators when a kiosk is out of bikes.
Julia Diana, of San Antonio's Department of Environmental Policy, said the bike share program, which, like Houston's, began as an experiment, has been well-received. The San Antonio system, the first in Texas, began with 13 kiosks. Seven more were added in October.
The seed money for Houston's project came from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency climate showcase grant.
Bicycle-sharing program will start in downtown Houston - Houston Chronicle
Broward County in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, Calif. officially launched its B-cycle program, which is the first county bike sharing system in the nation.
Broward B-cycle is comprised of several kiosks developed by KIOSK Information Systems and is the result of an agreement between B-cycle and the Broward County Board of County Commissioners, according to a company press release.
Users may check out a bike from any kiosk and return it to any other kiosk. The B-cycles are equipped with a GPS system that tracks mileage, calories burned and carbon offsets. To access the bikes, users may register on broward.bcycle.com or use a credit card at the kiosks, also called B-stations.
B-cycle is a partnership among Trek Bicycle, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Humana. Funding is also made available from an intermodal grant in the amount of $311,000 from FDOT for bikes and infrastructure.