The plan has always been to expand the program, and Laura Spanjian, Mayor Annise Parker’s sustainability director, first alluded to a search for new locations in early June.
“We’re going to have about 20 new kiosks and about 205 new bikes,” Spanjian now tells CultureMap. That would bring the total to approximately 225 bicycles inside of the Loop.
Spanjian says that the expansion, which was made possible through grant funding, will bring B-cycle sites to high-density neighborhoods with big office buildings and apartment complexes.
Come October, expect to see another 10 downtown kiosks, plus a few each in Midtown, the Museum District and Montrose. A leftover kiosk may be granted to the burgeoning East End.
I inquired with Spanjian about this and was told that so far there are 650 members in Houston B-Cycle and over a thousand check-outs at the three downtown kiosks, not too bad for our wet summer. There will be a full array of stats and numbers relating to the program around the time of the expansion in October. I don’t spend much time downtown but I did see a few people riding by on those easily recognizable bikes on the western end of the Buffalo Bayou trail near Shepherd a few days ago. I expect to see a lot more of them in the fall.
This is one of the best plans Houston has going, but don’t forget about Greenway Plaza! I would love to have a short term rental bike for the days I have to leave my own at home…
Sure would be nice if the network were to expand to someplace outside the loop. Oh, wait, that’s not part of Houston, is it. Never mind.
Agree that they should expand this outside the loop. It seems like this would go along nicely with our efforts to connect our bayous and make the trails better – sprinkle some of these bike-share stations along the bayous so that people can use them for work or just to get a ride in.
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