New bike share vendor bound for city

Metro approves contract to install 20 kiosks in 2024

More publicly available bikes are bound for Houston sidewalks in the coming months as Metro officials approved spending $10.6 million to create its own bicycle sharing network, aimed at largely replacing the existing and floundering nonprofit system.

Metropolitan Transit Authority board members on Thursday approved a contract with PBSC Urban Solutions, the Canadian company that manages and provides bikes and technology for bike share system in some of North America’s largest cities.

“This gets us from the limbo we are in, with the potential of not having a bike share system in the fourth largest city,” said Metro board chairman Sanjay Ramabhadran.

The system would start with 20 kiosks and 170 bikes, installed by mid-2024, officials said. Annually, plans call for adding 20 more stations and 170 bikes for up to four consecutive years. Spread across both the vendor for the bikes and kiosks, and the company that will maintain the system, Metro expects to spend $10.6 million.

Transit officials have said the system is intended to connect riders to transit, meaning kiosks will be concentrated on where they can either replace bus and rail trips, or connect riders to other travel options.

Approval of the vendor, however, leaves many unresolved details, Metro board members said. Officials said working with the public to select exactly where the stations will be located, developing plans for possible partnerships with sponsors and the outreach and advertising to potential users remain works-in-progress.

“We have considerable work to do to meet the expectations of the community,” board member Lex Frieden said.

Cycling advocates cheered the decision, while urging Metro to move even faster toward a fully developed, robust system, noting it will years to have 100 bike kiosks in place.

“We must not go backwards before we go forward,” said Peter Eccles, director of policy and planning for LINKHouston, a transportation advocacy group.

The approval also came with some skepticism, noting the collapse of the current Houston Bike Share. The nonprofit, which grew to 160 stations before loss of sponsorships and operational costs exceeded funding officials could bring in.

“You don’t pour good money after bad,” Tanglewood resident Kenneth Williams told the board, listing numerous concerns with expansion of bike access and adding bike lanes to Houston area streets.

Since last year, the bike share system has contracted to roughly 60 stations, and officials said without a lifetime it could close by the end of the year.

Houston on Wednesday approved spending $540,000 to maintain the nonprofit Houston Bike Share system, with the intent to keep it operating until Metro’s system debuts.

Despite the struggles, the system has gained popularity, especially among recreational riders. That has trickled into more point-to-point use by local riders looking for convenient connections between homes and businesses, schools and transit hubs.

“Houstonians have come to expect a bike system that gets them where they need to go,” said Joe Cutrufo, executive director of the advocacy group Bike Houston.

What remains unclear is how the system will integrate, or operate in tandem with, the existing BCycle system. The two bike sharing platforms have different vendors, which means the bikes and kiosks are not interchangeable and have two entirely different apps where riders can access information and check out bikes.

Nonprofit leaders, however, said they want to streamline their service and Metro’s to serve as many people as possible.

“We will consolidate our limited resources to maintain connectivity until Metro expands there,” bike share board chairman Neeraj Tandon said.