Build It and They Will Come: Big Expansion Expected for Houston Bikeshare

"The same transportation improvement plan aiming $140 million at I-45 includes $4.7 million meant to expand the B-Cycle program in the city," reports Dug Begley. The proposal will be under review this Friday by the Houston-Galveston Area Council's (HGAC) Transportation Policy Council. 

The money could find a substantial increase in the size of the B-Cycle system, reports Begley—from 29 stations with 210 bikes to 100 stations with 800 bikes. "The money, including a 21 percent match from B-Cycle, will add stations in the Texas Medical Center and Rice Village in one phase, increase density in the downtown and Midtown area from the Med Center in another, before expanding east and southeast to EaDo and the University of Houston and Texas Southern University area," according to Begley.

Begley also notes that bikes attract a relatively paltry share of HGAC's transportation funding—though in 2016 the agency could fund another $3 million for a Texas Department of Transportation project to add bike trails along Buffalo Bayou east of McKee Street.