Toward an Equitable Bikeshare System

April Corbin tells the story of the Better Bike Share Conference, held recently in Philadelphia, through the use of Storify and a collection of Tweets blasted out under the #bikeshare4all hashtag.

Among those giving presentations at the event were Tamika Butler, executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

Yes @SimplySJG @betterbikeshare!! There is a difference between equity and buzz phrase of the moment smart growth! #bikeshare4all

— Tamika Butler (@TamikaButler) June 23, 2016

"All public space is shared space." - @PhillyMayor on role of govt making it safer for people on bikes on roads #bikeshare4all

— Marisa Jones (@marisacjones) June 23, 2016

The most dangerous streets are in the poorest neighborhoods. Not just guns. Crashes. #bikeshare4all pic.twitter.com/t1fwcp7PG7

— Jim Saksa (@Saksappeal) June 23, 2016

Corbin also produced a separate article to examine one of the big ideas from the opening presentation by Tamika Butler: How are we supposed to talk about equity when we don’t even have a shared definition half the time?

The issue of equity in bikeshare has been gaining prevalence in the discussions about transit and mobility. A 2014 report by the Mineta Transportation Institute dug into the systematic challenges of delivering bikeshare to low-income neighborhoods. Washington, D.C.'s bikeshare system, Capital Bikeshare, made news in April 2015 when data revealed a widening gap in use between people identifying as white, Hispanic, and black. A more recent article from May 2016 presents a kind of playbook for bikeshare equity.