Citi Bike – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com The Best of Baltimore Since 1907 Thu, 06 Aug 2020 00:27:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Citi Bike – Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com 32 32 ​City Announces Bike Share Agreement to Start in Fall https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/city-announces-bike-share-agreement-program-set-for-fall/ Wed, 16 Mar 2016 13:24:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?p=31547
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Mark Dennis, mayor's office staff photographer, left, and Jon Laria, mayor's Bicycle Advisory Commission chairman, test out the bikes. - Photography by Ron Cassie

In New York, for example, Citi Bank serves as title sponsor of their Citi Bike program, which launched in 2013 and accounted for more than 10 million trips last year. In Philadelphia, which launched its bike-share program last year, Independence Blue Cross serves as title sponsor.

“Bike share is an affordable and healthy addition to the city’s existing transportation options,” said Mayor wStephanie Rawlings-Blake, who struggled several times during Wednesday’s press conference to correctly recall the name of the city’s new bike-share program vendor. “We are excited to invest in our communities by providing a safe and sustainable way to travel in Baltimore.”

Bewegen, whose name means “to move” in Dutch, was founded in 2013 and is a relative newcomer to the bike-share business. They currently run a bike-sharing program in Birmingham, AL, with 400 bikes and 40 stations—where pedal-assist rides have proven popular, according to Decker—and a smaller program in Wolfsburg, Germany. Bewegen was also recently selected to serve as vendor for Richmond’s bike-share program, scheduled to launch this summer.

Corps Logistics, a veteran-owned business currently based in New Jersey, will oversee bike-share’s daily operations for Bewegen in Baltimore and Richmond. Company founder Jim Duffney said Wednesday it plans to moves it headquarters to Baltimore.

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]]> Delayed: Charm City Bikeshare Pushed Back to 2015 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/community/delayed-charm-city-bikeshare-pushed-back-to-2015/ Thu, 22 May 2014 12:27:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/?p=68055 Continued]]> The Charm City Bikeshare project has hit another road block, delaying the launch at least until June or July 2015, Barry Robinson, Baltimore City’s transit and marine services chief, told Bike Shorts today. It’s the second significant delay this year in the effort to bring bike sharing to Baltimore and third in recent years.

The project first took a hit at the start of this year when Bixi, the Canadian company contracted to supply the bicycles and equipment, filed for bankruptcy. Fear not, city officials said at the time, funding for the project remained in place and a new supplier would be found. 

A month after Bixi’s bankruptcy filing—not completely unexpected—Robinson, at Bike Maryland’s annual state symposium in Annapolis, said Social Bikes, a New York-based company bicycle supplier (above photo), had been selected to replace Bixi. Although a contract hadn’t been signed yet, Robinson noted at the time, Social Bikes was partnering with Portland-based Alta, the company that will operate Charm City Bikeshare, in other cities and that he expected the deal to be finalized soon.

That’s not going to happen now. At least not right away.

Robinson said the Baltimore City Department of Transportation (DOT) had been working on the assumption after Bixi’s bankruptcy filing that the State Highway Administration and Maryland Department of Transportation would not require the city’s DOT to put out another Request for Proposal (RFP) before identifying a substitute bicycle supplier. That turned out not to be the case, Robinson said, adding that he expects the new RFP to be finalized this summer. The start up cost of Charm City Bikeshare is being funded through the state’s Cycle Maryland initiative.

The projected launch of Charm City Bikeshare is now June/July 2015.

Robinson said Social Bikes still remains, along Bixi, recently purchased by Quebec businessman Bruno Rodi, B Cycle, whose previous attempt to bring bike sharing to Baltimore never came to fruition, and the new Bicycle Transit Systems, among the handful of companies likely to respond to the RFP. “It’s not like there are a lot of companies out there that do this,” Robinson said.

Phase I of the Charm City Bikeshare project calls for 250 bikes at the 25 stations. Phase II, which would double the size of Charm City Bikeshare, doesn’t have a firm timetable, Robinson said, adding that the city needs to find a lead sponsor, or several sponsors, to support the project before it can move forward with Phase II.

Capital Bikeshare, also operated by Alta, now has more than 300 bicycle docking stations in Washington, D.C. and surrounding metro area, with 2,600 bikes, 24,000 members—and 6.1 million trips under its belt since launching more than four years ago. According to Bikeshare.com, almost 50 U.S. cities now have bike-sharing systems, with more than two dozen, including Baltimore, in the works. New York City’s new bike-sharing program, Citi Bike, already has surpassed 7 million rides and has more than 100,000 members.

A Google map of bike-sharing programs around the world can be found here.

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