Phoenix Preps for Social-Powered Bike Share

"The City of Phoenix, Arizona, will get a bike share program, starting later this year, said Mayor Greg Stanton at NACTO's Designing Cities conference today," writes Nicole Ferraro. "The program is called "GR:D" (pronounced "grid")."

"After a small test rollout in December, Phoenix is due to have 500 bikes by February, after which the program will expand to include 1,000 bikes, reaching Mesa and Tempe. The system will be built largely around Phoenix's light rail stations."

"What's more, though, is that GR:D is being powered in partnership with Social Bicycles, a company headed up by Ryan Rzepecki (named one of our Future Cities 100 innovators), which allows people to use the web to find and reserve bikes, and lock them wherever they choose. This is the first major city rollout that Social Bicycles has been a part of, though projects are planned for Tampa and Orlando, Fla., and elsewhere."