Houston Metro Abandons Bike Share in Favor of On-Demand Microtransit

Houston won’t be getting its bike share system back any time soon — at least not at Metropolitan Transit Authority’s expense, reports Akhil Ganesh for Houston Landing. The system was shuttered this summer after its operator could no longer sustain its cost.

“Our proposed 2025 budget does not include bikeshare,” Metro Chief Financial Officer George Fotinos said during a Customer Experience, Operations, and Business Development committee meeting, citing the agency’s renewed focus on increasing ridership and improving customer experience.

The decision reverses a plan to contract with PBSC Urban Solutions to relaunch the system approved by the Metro board last year. Now, Houston is the largest U.S. city without a bike share system. “Joe Cutrufo, executive director of bicycling advocacy organization BikeHouston, called Metro’s decision a ‘slap in the face’ to people who previously used bikeshare in Houston.”

Metro says it will invest instead in expanding its new on-demand curb2curb service. “Metro’s curb2curb ridership numbers for fiscal 2024 are just shy of 240,000, which represents an increase of more than 26 percent over the previous year. Meanwhile, the local bus system has serviced more than 5.3 million passengers,” Ganesh notes.