City Officials Launch Bicycle Sharing Program

From Ali Glisson from the City of Tampa:

Mayor Bob Buckhorn recently announced that the team of CycleHop, LLC and Social Bicycles will create a bicycle sharing program in Tampa.

 “The idea for bicycle sharing is simple: To give residents and visitors one more way to get around our urban core," said Mayor Bob Buckhorn. "For the cruise passengers in Channelside, the downtown office workers, and the family in Seminole Heights, this program will be designed to make all of their lives easier and provide an affordable, easy mode of transportation."

The first bikes are expected to be in place by this fall.

The team behind CycleHop and Social Bicycles has a combined experience of 19 years in the bicycle sharing industry.

Josh Squire, who runs CycleHop, oversaw the implementation of bike sharing programs in Broward County and worked for JC Decaux, which started some of the first programs in Lyon and Paris. Social Bikes builds the “smart bikes,” and provides bikes to Buffalo and Sun Valley, Idaho.

"Social Bicycles is excited to work with CycleHop to bring the next generation of bike share technology to the City of Tampa," said Ryan Rzepecki, CEO of Social Bicycles. "Residents and visitors will soon be able to travel using a new environmentally friendly form of public transportation."

The bikes are equipped with a GPS-enabled locking system which will lock to bike racks found at hub locations throughout downtown Tampa, said Rzepecki.

The Bike Sharing program is part of Mayor Buckhorn’s overall goal to make Tampa a more bicycle-friendly community and to expand on our bicycle infrastructure, which currently includes 32.5 center lane miles of trails, bicycle lanes, and signed bicycle routes.  

Here's some background:

In October 2012, the City of Tampa released a request for proposals (RFP) to create a bicycle sharing program. The RFP requested a proposal to create 30 stations with 300 bikes throughout Tampa’s downtown core, Ybor City, and surrounding neighborhoods by fall 2013, with expansion phases to continue out to Westshore and the University of South Florida area by fall 2015.

The City of Tampa received three responses to the request for proposals (RFP) from the following companies:  B-Cycle,LLC,  CycleHop, LLC, and DecoBike, LLC.

What do you think of the program? Will you participate? Tell us in the comments.