Houston Could Launch New Bike Share

Writing in the Houston Chronicle, Dug Begley describes the Houston area’s Metropolitan Transit Authority’s proposal to create its own bike share system weeks after the current system, operated by BCycle, announced plans to shut down due to a lack of sufficient funding. “The proposal, scheduled for approval next Thursday by the Metropolitan Transit Authority board, would approve a three-year deal with PBSC Urban Solutions, with two annual extensions.”

Neeraj Tandon, chairman of the nonprofit that runs the old system, said in a statement, “Our goal for years has been to migrate the service to a public utility such as Metro because we know bike share is unsustainable without public funding.”

The new system, which will largely focus on making connections to transit (in contrast to the more recreational nature of the BCycle system), is slated to have 20 stations and 140 electric bikes, with plans to double that size each subsequent year during the five-year contract. “Metro’s aim is to link potential riders to transit with convenient bike pickup and dropoff locations, meaning bikes at major transit hubs.”

As Begley notes, “The transit-centric system, meanwhile, does not stop BCycle from carving out its own niche and remaining operational in some way.”