Vendor selected for bike share expansion

From the Tribune expansion of Chicago's bike share program will be handled by a new vendor.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bike-sharing-plan-0...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David on March 21, 2012 at 10:01am

Thank you very much for the info. I've been half-curious about that for a while but was never sure.

I'll be very impressed if Alta manages to get 300 stations identified and installed by June. I wish we knew more about the contract though. Bike distribution and discovery are incredibly important aspects of a bike sharing system, and I haven't heard anything about what resources are dedicated to that.

Stefanie said:

Alta plans and manages bike sharing systems -- redistribution of bikes, memberships, assistance with planning dock placement, permitting, etc. Bixi/Public Bike Share makes the bikes, docks, etc. Alta formed a partnership with that company, so when they bid on bike share projects, they use Bixi "hardware" with their "software".

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Permalink Reply by Melissa on April 27, 2012 at 4:07pm

Talking Transit: Chicago gearing up for bike sharing

http://metroplanning.org/news-events/article/6400

Here is the latest on the fully-fledged bike share program coming our way! The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) provides a great little analysis in this post. Their transit blog, The Connector, is also incredibly well-researched and chock-full of interesting tidbits. (They examine transportation in relation to other pressing issues like economic development and water supply.) From this article:

Chicago bike share members will pay an annual fee of $75 for unlimited rides under 30 minutes, the expected time for most trips.

I think $75 more than pays for the number of short cab rides the average Loop employee takes in a year for those time-crunch moments and just-beyond-walking-distance meetings. Not to mention the benefit of unlimited short bike rides. Sign me up.