Memphis bike-sharing system has launched
Explore Bike Share launched Wednesday with a celebration touting the health, recreation, transportation and community-building benefits of 600 rental bikes stationed from West Memphis to Orange Mound.
The mother-son duo of Shannon Maris and Jack Stanley were among 250 volunteers who rode the hightech bikes from Uptown to Court Square to some of the 60 stations scattered across the city.
“I think it’s important to get some of the cars off the road,” said Maris, a 20-year resident of Cooper-Young, who is active in the neighborhood’s Revolutions Bicycle Cooperative.
Whether Explore Bike Share will do that to a significant degree, “I don’t know. It’s hard to say,” Maris said. “Part of the gap, I think, is driver education. Drivers don’t necessarily know to look for bikes, so that’s one thing that needs help.”
“It’s a step,” added Stanley, a Central High student. “It’s going to take more than just bikes on the road. There needs to be infrastructure for the bikes and more pedestrianfriendly, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
‘This is a real community event’
Volunteers rode about 225 of the nonprofit’s BCycle Dash bicycles to Court Square before heading out to South Memphis, Midtown, Crosstown, Downtown and the Medical District.
The remaining bikes were slated to be delivered to bike share stations Wednesday afternoon to make the system fully operational.
Before the launch ceremony began, a family from Nebraska had rented bikes at a Court Square bikesharing station set up for a photo opportunity.
The launch completed an idea that Doug Carpenter of the Doug Carpenter Associates creative communications firm helped bring to life starting in 2015: an affordable, equitable bike-sharing system with strong buy-in from the community.
“Our original intent was to make sure we were not led from the top down, that we were in the community and we let people really have input on this system,” Carpenter said. “I think we have launched a system that there’s already people that are engaged in it.”
“Two things are pretty profound
to me,” Carpenter added. “One is today, that you can have over 250 volunteers on a Wednesday morning that will take their time to ride a bike. It feels like a good indicator of the connection to the city.”
Earlier this year, “We had over 300 people volunteer to come to a hot warehouse and unpack boxes. That feels to me like, and we’ll find out as we continue to grow, that feels to me like a real community event,” Carpenter said.
How Explore Bike Share works
While the retail rate is $5 for a onehour ride, Explore Bike Share offers a number of membership options and officials say there are opportunities for lower-income people to participate for as little as $5 a year.
“This really shrinks our city and gives us a new opportunity to connect,” said Doug McGowen, City of Memphis chief operating officer.
The system is accessed with the BCycle mobile phone app, similar to Uber, Lyft or Zipcar, and the app pinpoints the location of stations and bikes, which are equipped with GPS and a flat-screen computer.
BCycle, a 10-year-old unit of Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Corporation, is the system’s equipment provider. BCycle president Bob Burns told the crowd, “I can’t think of a better city than Memphis to be launching our 50th system.”
Burns credited Carpenter, Explore Bike Share and BCycle staff and city leaders for making it happen.
“Using a bike-share system is simple, it’s easy and it’s fun, and that’s the way it should be, but implementing a bikeshare system is not. It’s a lot of hard work. It takes years and years and years of work, dedication, permitting, stuff that you will never see.”
Building on momentum from the launch, Explore Bike Share organizers will continue to improve the system’s reach and accessibility, board member Roshun Austin said.
“We are bringing bikes to residents of neighborhoods who deserve affordable access to a transportation option that gets them to where they need to go, to the grocery store, the local retail shop, to work, to a neighbor’s home, to a community center,” said Austin, who is president and chief executive officer of The Works community development corporation in South Memphis.
“Equity is at the root of our entire process, and it doesn’t stop today,” Austin said. “We will continue to establish partnerships with community organizations such as Knowledge Quest, Advance Memphis, Orange Mound, Building (BLDG) Memphis, Soulsville neighborhood association to bring this amenity to anyone who wants it and those who may not realize how much they need it.”
Next up is a $2.2 million expansion, slated for 2019, that will add 300 bicycles and 30 stations.