Houston electric bikes get funding boost
Harris County OKs $250,000 to launch 100 bikes in Precinct 1
Houston’s growing bike share system will jump into over-drive in the coming months, fueled by $250,000 in Harris County funds that will put 100 new electric bikes on city streets.
An amended plan by Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis approved this week will buy the bikes, along with additional stations in under-served communities.
The bikes — outfitted with electric motors — will be distributed and used across the entire B-Cycle system, most of which lies within Ellis’ county precinct.
Cyclists cheered the decision, saying they gladly would hop on electric bikes.
“I have not tried one, but I want to,” said Gene Smallwood, 50, as he rested along the Buffalo Bayou Trail. “I think for a lot of people it could be huge help, getting them on a bike.”
With the addition of the electric bikes, Ellis’ proposal — approved Tuesday by Commissioners’ Court with money from Precinct 1 discretionary funds — totals $842,700 and includes installation of 30 stations — half in lowincome areas — along with 320 bicycles.
The expansion of e-bikes will increase the number of electric bicycles in the system from five to 105.
“Five isn’t very much of a pilot,” Ellis said Wednesday. “Let’s
get these in place and let’s see what usage is like then.”
Key to that use in many communities is the location of kiosks. B-Cycle, operated by a local nonprofit, allows people to check out bicycles from stations of 10 to 15 bikes across the area, mostly clustered in downtown, Midtown, Montrose and the Texas Medical Center. Riders can check out bikes and pay $3 for every 30 minutes of use or use a monthly or annual pass and receive the first 60 minutes of use free. Bikes can be checked out and returned to any of the 109 current stations, though 12 have been shut down because of the COVID-19 crisis to reduce exposure in area parks.
“Even after shuttering a dozen of our highest-performing kiosks, ridership has remained strong,” said Doogie Roux, operations director for Houston B-Cycle. “We’re still seeing people make increased efforts to travel in a socially-distant, environmentally-responsible and fun way.”
All of the new stations planned are in Precinct 1, though the additional bikes will be distributed and used across the system, which now totals 109 kiosks and nearly 800 bikes. The upcoming stations are part of a larger program to increase the total to 160 by next year.
“We’re staying committed to building both density and adding coverage within our network,” said Beth Martin, executive director of Houston Bike Share, which manages the B-Cycle system.
County officials determined the locations with guidance from B-Cycle leadership, aiming to spread the system wider and fill in gaps where the distances between kiosks is too great to make them useful. Notably, the new stations bring bike sharing to Northside Village and Kashmere Gardens within Loop 610 and east of Interstate 45, and in Fifth Ward nearly to Denver Harbor along Interstate 10 northeast of downtown.
Four of the new stations, meanwhile, will make for a far ride to the southern tip of Lake Houston. Three stations are planned for Alexander Deussen Park and another is slotted for the adjacent Dwight D. Eisenhower Park in northeast Harris County near Crosby.
Other kiosks will add density to the existing network, such as six planned along the Colombia Tap Trail through EaDo and South Central Houston to Brays Bayou.
The addition of electric bikes was critical, Ellis said, noting Houston’s weather makes for some sweaty rides. He noted his own four-block bike trip to the dry cleaner prior to the court meeting Tuesday left him needing to clean up because of the muggy morning. In communities where cycling has not caught on or is considered a last resort, the aid from electric motors can be consequential.
“It changes things,” Ellis said. “Then you get beyond the fear of rain, you get beyond the heat.”
Still, even as B-Cycle came to some communities and cheered expansions into Third Ward and Fifth Ward, use has lagged. It is not as simple as merely providing the service.
“We have to get out and promote it,” Ellis said.
He will have to do some convincing, said Stephen Jackson, a southeast Houston resident. Jogging along the Columbia Tap Trail Wednesday evening, Jackson said he applauds efforts to add bike lanes and trails to “forgotten” parts of the city by Ellis, but said the bike sharing still does not resonate with most of his neighbors.
“It feels like something for tourists,” Jackson said.
Ridership data compiled by B-Cycle shows most trips remain recreational onetime riders, but just barely. As the system has grown, especially into the medical center, use by members has grown from about a quarter of trips to nearly half.
B-Cycle also is trying to lure riders for whom a $79 annual pass or $13 monthly fee may be a hard sell as they expand into low-income areas, where a bike could replace a time-consuming transit ride or walk. The Go Pass program is open to anyone with an annual income below $35,000 over the age of 18 who applies to B-Cycle with a verified phone number. A monthly fee of $3 allows unlimited bike checkouts, but a single use cannot exceed 90 minutes.