BIKE SHARING IS COMING TO SECOND STREET SOON

Nice Ride bicycle sharing system pod in Minneapolis has been extremely successful.

The SFMTA is currently working with its regional partners to select the vendor for the Bay Area's first bicyle-sharing system. The regional MTC has funded a pilot program of 1000 bikes along the Caltrain line, and 500 will come San Francisco in 2012. This system, which will benefit from fourth-generation technology, will include pods along Second Street, most notably at South Park.  Anyone who has recently visited Paris, Montreal, Washington DC, or even Minneapolis, will understand the excitement. In these cities, bike sharing's immediate, wild success has been an urban transportation game changer, with high demand driving rapid expansion of the bike-share networks. With bicycle sharing,  current frequent urban cyclists, around 16 percent of the city's residents, will welcome the next demographic group, the 50 percent who can ride a bike and are curious about the idea, but haven't yet made the leap to urban cycling for everyday transportation. When these folks start using the easy-to-access, inexpensive bike-share system,  bicycle ridership is likely to double. Whether you’re enthusiastic about this or not, it's coming, and will hit the ground here this fall. 


UPDATE: Alta Bike Sharing in partnership with BIXI have been selected to implement the San Francisco bike sharing system. This is an excellent, mature solution. Kudos to the SFMTA for this excellent choice. Now let's make the bikes orange and black!

SFMTA Bicycle Sharing Pilot area. The system is scheduled to be implemented later in 2012.