SVBC Invites Cities to Learn About San Mateo's Bike Share

Last week, SVBC brought together corporate partners, several cities' staff, and elected leaders for a learning opportunity with City of San Mateo and Social Bicycles to discuss their new bike share program, Bay Bikes. Our goal was to share this alternative model of bike share with other cities on the Peninsula, since Bay Bikes is a different system than Bay Area Bike Share, without docking stations and with all the technology online and on the bike. Participants included representatives from Millbrae, San Bruno, Menlo Park, Cupertino, Campbell, Stanford Health Care, and Intuit.We also offered a bikepool from Caltrain to the meeting at San Mateo City Hall and at least one participant signed up for a Bay Bikes account to try out the system firsthand!Reprising her presentation from this year's Silicon Valley Bicycle Summit, Kathy Kleinbaum of City of San Mateo talked about the history of the project, how it came to be, and the current stats of the program (over 300 members!). Social Bicycles talked about the basics of their system, how it differs from others, and what other cities use it. The participants had lots of questions for Social Bicycles and the City of San Mateo regarding basic management and costs of a system, how different cities' systems could work together, and staff time involved. Social Bicycles also revealed that they are piloting an e-bike to be included in their fleet offering.As cities throughout the Peninsula are considering renewing bike share or beginning new bike share programs, we are happy to educate our cities on the options available and how bike share can lead to increased rates of biking and increased bike infrastructure.Want to learn more about Bay Bikes? Come to our Outreach Training on September 7!