Portland Bikeshare Returns for Year 2

[Nathan Miller]

I meant to post this earlier, but the West End News had a nice write up on the Portland Bike Share with a few new nuggets of information: http://thewestendnews.com/shifting-gears-a-history-of-portlands-bike-share/

1. Bikes will emerge from winter hibernation sometime in April 
2. A 2014 study conducted by Journey to Work found that Portland residents seldom ride their bikes to work. The average Portland resident’s commute to work is 2.8 miles, but two-thirds of Portland’s commuters drive alone. In fact, only 3% take public transit and only 2% ride bikes. (If true, this is a stunning and painful statistic) 
3. A survey conducted by the Portland Chamber of Commerce distributed in March of 2021 found 78% of respondent businesses strongly supported a bike share system. In addition, 71% would promote bike share use among their employees. And 30% of businesses would consider sponsoring a bike station near their storefronts.
4. Tandem Mobility is planning on operating two hundred pedal bikes and fifty electric assisted bikes across twenty-seven docking stations. They will all be located on the peninsula. There have been conversations about expanding into South Portland and neighboring towns in the following years.
   

I took out a couple months' membership last fall to get a sense for how the system works. I found the regular pedal bikes to be kind of meh, since they are heavy and slow, but the e-bikes were a delight to ride. For example, I used one to zip up the hill from Bayside to Upper Washington (which still requires some genuine effort on the part of the rider, but is obviously much easier than w/o assist). Because of the price difference on renting the two different types and availability of the e-bikes, there were times when I took a short trip on a pedal bike to get to a location where I knew an e-bike would be, and then completed my journey on that. 

I think it's a little weird to talk about expanding to other towns but not adding some reasonable off-peninsula stations, like Portland Transportation Center, UNE, Woodford Corner. I assume USM station will return in year 2, since I'm pretty sure they are putting some money into the system. 

As someone who owns and rides personal bikes, it was surprisingly refreshing to just drop off a bike when I was done using it and not have to worry about theft or changing my plans and having to figure out how to get my bike home. 

Did anybody else give the bikeshare a try during its brief appearance last year?

Nate

[John Clark]

I actually worked last year as one of the folks on the ground "rebalancing" bikes and swapping ebike batteries, and will likely be doing so this season as well. I also used it fairly often (although I received a free membership through working there, so that obviously impacted my use patterns). I shared similar sentiments about it being refreshing, and additionally found it to be a nice complement to the bus network, allowing me to quickly get somewhere either not on a bus route or during a time where the bus schedule doesn't fit my needs.

From my work experience, I was pleasantly surprised with the usage the system received in its first partial season. One of the nicest things to see was some of the stations near large clumps of apartments (such as the station at Congress and Park Streets) being heavily used by residents, as it showed the genuine commuting benefits of the program, serving more than just tourists. This was a location we would always attempt to keep stocked with e-bikes, but they would move through so quickly. Depending on the membership fee structure, I could see the commuting aspect to continue to grow this year.

I'm just a guy on the ground, so obviously I have no say in the decisions, but I was also disappointed to not see expansion to off-peninsula neighborhoods. Off-peninsula stations would be huge in solving the last-mile issue of public transportation, and promote active transportation in less dense neighborhoods. Additionally, this would likely be a city initiative rather than a Tandem one, but I'd like to see the city consider providing subsidized rates for folks who qualify for reduced METRO fares.

Looking forward to seeing how this full season goes!

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John Clark (he | him | his)

Past Chair, Portland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee

(207) 712-0480

[Jaime Parker]

I have been led to believe there will be a station on Thompson's Point/PTC.  John, could you look into that?  That would certainly make sense as the first "off-peninsula" location, in my book.

Jaime Parker
Trails and Placemaking
Portland Trails
ja...@trails.org
329.6180

Non Sibi, Sed Omnibus

On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 9:21 PM Nathan Miller <nmil...@msn.com> wrote:

[Winston Lumpkins]

I used this service once, when I took a pedal bike from the Thompsons point to the east end where I live when returning from a short vacation via concord coach, so, I think they've already got them there.  I did have to go over to Thompson's point, the station was not anywhere near the bus station. 

I liked it, and will probably use it again, though mostly I'll keep riding my own bikes around town.

~Winston

Winston Lumpkins IV (he/him/his)

Chair, Portland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee

https://www.portlandbikeped.org/

winston....@gmail.com
207-408-1508

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[John Clark]

Yep, there is a station at Thompson's Point that was installed towards the end of the season and will be returning. As Winston mentioned, it's not near the PTC, and to be honest, is a little out of the way from the businesses down there as well. It's convenient for concert goers though so that'll be interesting to see how that plays out this season. 

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