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A bike located on Drexel's campus. Bike Share Philadelphia is attempting to implement a program where bikes stationed around the City of Philadelphia can be used by the public to travel around the city.

Philly bike sharing program in works

By: Mike Hess

Posted: 1/11/08

A new program, Bike Share Philadelphia, is hoping to help student traffic with a public use bicycle program.

Bike Share Philadelphia is holding a public forum Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m. to promote their program and potentially implement their program, according to Russell Meddin, one of the event's organizers.

Biking is a seemingly viable option, but the high rate of bike theft often discourages these potential bicyclists, forum organizer, Brittany Bonnete, said. According to Kryptonite, a bike lock manufacturer, Philadelphia ranks fourth in the nation in bike theft.

However, Bonnete, whose own bike was stolen in Philadelphia, explained that a major benefit of the program is that people would not have to maintain or store a personal bicycle; they would instead use the city's bicycles.

Meddin and Bonnete said they developed Bike Share Philadelphia when they

visited Lyon, France, and observed one of the largest public use bicycle programs in the world, Grand Lyon.

Bonnete used Grand Lyon extensively for a year, and said it was a very efficient means of travel.

"It was an excellent way to see the city and … you didn't have to wait for a bus or metro, because it's available 24 hours," she said.

Meddin said he "had an epiphany … this is incredible."

They both took note of how similar Lyon was to Philadelphia in size, population, and number of Universities. Therefore, a similar public use bicycle program would work well in Philadelphia, according to the duo.

Bike Share Philadelphia would function in the same way as Grand Lyon and other major public bicycle use programs, Meddin and Bonnete explained.

People would use bicycles by putting down a deposit using their credit card, or pay a membership fee, with a free 30 minutes of bicycle use. After 30 minutes there are slight increases around each 45 minute interval, but the program is designed for short trips.

Bonnete said that density, not the number of bicycles, is the key factor.

"You can't go 300 meters without finding a [public bicycle] station [in Lyon], and in Paris they are working on making it 100 meters," Bonnete said.

This makes the system very easy to use, she said.

Philadelphia could also benefit from a bicycle program because it has over 300 miles of bicycle lanes, which other major cities do not, according to Meddin.

Meddin said that one of the big problems for current bicyclists is the "share the road problem," and that when there are so many bicyclists, they must be accommodated.

A forum on public use bicycles was held in New York City and evoked a great deal of press coverage but little results. Meddin and Bonnete said they are hoping to avoid this by holding a forum on Jan. 18 with decision makers following their public forum.

Bonnete said she hopes that with enough people at the public forum, officials will see how good the idea is and also jump on board.