The city of Houston received a federal grant to greatly expand its bike share program.
Image: Max Burkhalter
Houston B-cycle, the city’s bike share program, plans to triple in size over the next two years, adding 71 stations with 568 bikes.
The expansion will be largely funded by a $3.5 million federal grant from the Federal Highway Administration, and Houston Bike Share, the nonprofit that maintains the city’s bike share program, will put up $880,000, the remainder of the tab.
The program currently has 31 stations with 225 bikes; after the expansion, the city will have 105 B-cycle stations for people to pick up and drop off their two-wheel rides. Many of the new stops will be focused in the Texas Medical Center and on campuses, including the University of Houston Main Campus, Texas Southern University, UH-Downtown and Rice University.
The expansion is part of a push by Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration to provide more alternative forms of transportation in an effort to ease up our city’s increasingly clogged streets.
“We need a paradigm shift in transportation away from single-occupancy motor vehicles,” Turner said in a statement. “Making cycling more accessible by building a strong bike sharing system is a critical component of that change.”
|
|
|
