The current plan calls for 225 bicycles that can be rented from and returned to 24 docking stations for limited trips in and around downtown Dayton starting this spring.
This program is new, but these efforts have a history. In the spring of 2011, the Life Enrichment Center, a Dayton faith-based non-profit, made yellow bikes available free of charge. The idea was to let people borrow a bike, ride it to a destination and park it in a bike rack for the next rider.
All 125 bikes disappeared in the first month.
Biking advocates are confident this time will be different. The green bikes will be available for public use, but a membership card or credit card will be required to pull bikes from docks. The Trek-manufactured, basket-equipped three-speed bicycles will have passive GPS, said Scott Murphy, business development director for the Downtown Dayton Partnership and chair of Bike Miami Valley.
“In every city that has done something like Yellow Bike, bikes have disappeared right away,” Murphy said. “That really wasn’t bike sharing. This technology has been proven in over 30 cities across the U.S.”
He called this program “fourth-generation bike sharing.” Credit- or membership-card requirements push theft rates down, he said.
“It’s proven really reliable,” Murphy said. “A lot of communities are making these investments.”
Bikes’ selling point
Sandy Gudorf, the downtown partnership’s executive director, said the program’s track record was a selling point. Waterloo, Wisc.-based B-Cycle, has its bikes and kiosks in more than 20 cities, according to its web site. Cincinnati’s Red Bike sharing program is the nearest to Dayton.
The $1.1 million Cincinnati Red Bike program saw 7,000 rides in its first four weeks, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported in October 2014.
“We’ve hired a good vendor,” Gudorf said.
Jason Barron, executive director of Cincinnati Red Bike, said the response in his city so far “has been everything I had dreamed.”
Cincinnati Red Bike has 30 docking stations and about 260 bikes, Barron said. Since that program’s mid-September launch, residents have had 18,000 rides, even through cold-weather months, he said.
“It gets me excited for spring, that’s for darn sure,” said Barron, a native of Vandalia.
He said there have been no problems with attempted thefts. The program’s red bikes are clearly labeled, have distinctive front ends and are GPS-enabled, he said.
“Honestly, what we’ve seen is that folks are protective of them,” Barron said, adding that residents sometimes report what they believe are attempts to steal the program’s bikes.
Dayton leaders have long sought to make the city more bike-friendly. Three years ago, city leaders planned to spend $12.1 million in federal and state money through 2018 on street repair and repaving in a bid to give riders clear bicycle lanes. And runners, walkers and bikers have used trails by the Great Miami River for decades.
“The bike share program is one of the many ways we can connect destinations and points of interests and neighborhoods to each other,” Gudorf said. “That’s one of the key reasons we and our community partnership … push to get bike share done.”
‘Greater downtown’ stations
The capital required to launch the program was about $1 million. First-year operations could add another million to that figure, Gudorf estimated. Organizers are also recruiting “founding partners” to further contribute by sponsoring docking stations, Murphy said.
The program was first announced in May 2014, when RTA and Downtown Dayton Partnership said the region had received $800,000 from the Federal Surface Transportation budget, matched further by $250,000 from Dayton government.
RTA will own and maintain the bikes. Once a web site is running, riders will be able to buy memberships online.
There will be at least two ways to ride the bikes, said Laura Estandia, executive director of Bike Miami Valley. One will be to buy a Bike Miami Valley membership. The other will be to use a credit card.
“The system is designed for short trips, running errands, getting from work to lunch, those types of rides,” Estandia said. “With the station map that we’ve set up, a lot of those rides will be able to be completed within 30 minutes.”
The stations will be around “greater downtown” and environs, she said. Station maps won’t be available until early March. Murphy said there is no firm date yet for setting up docking stations, but Bike Miami Valley is targeting May.
Employers and organizations can host docking stations for $60,000 — $20,000 a year for three years, Estandia said.
If riders have bikes out longer than 30 minutes, fees will be added. Daily passes can also be purchased allowing unlimited bike check-outs for 24 hours, Estandia said.
The registration web site isn’t ready, but Estandia expects users to be able to get to the site from BikeMiamiValley.org.
In general, docking stations will be unattended. “When we first roll out the system, there will certainly be days when there will be volunteers out at the stations,” Estandia said.
A study examining the feasibility of a bike share program was unveiled last May at the Miami Valley Cycling Summit in Springfield. That event was sponsored in part by Cox Media Group Ohio, owner of the Dayton Daily News.
Cox Media Group is partnering with the Downtown Dayton Partnership and is assisting with what will be the program’s safety campaign, Murphy said.
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