San Francisco Bay Area Bike-share Pilot Tender Opens

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Regional Bike-sharing Program for the California cities of:
- San Francisco with 500 bikes in 50 stations, 
- Redwood City with about 100 bikes in 10 stations, 
- Mountain View with about 100 bikes in 10 stations, 
- Palo Alto with about 100 bikes in 10 stations, and 
- San Jose with about 200 bikes in 20 Stations. 


The RFP calls for this pilot program to begin operation on July 1, 2012. This will be the largest bike-sharing system on the West Coast of the United States. It will cover a larger area than the regional systems of The New Balance Hubway around Boston and Capital Bikeshare around Washington, DC with less than half the number of bikes. Each on these cities of this pilot program are along the Caltrain rail system to facilitate easy commuting.


The timetable called for in this RFP will make for a very interesting summer for bike-sharing in the USA. Within a month, Chicago, New York and now San Francisco are expecting to launch bike-share.


image: BAAQM RFP


Russell Meddin - ain't no bikesharephiladelphia(.org) for this summer! Why not Philly!

Nice Ride Minnesota Moving Forward with Procurement

The following is a press release from Nice Ride Minnesota:

"Nice Ride Minnesota, a nonprofit organization created to run a new bike-share system in Minneapolis, received funding authorization today from the Federal Highway Administration. This decision enables Nice Ride Minnesota to proceed with procurement of bikes and bike-share kiosks, keeping the organization on track to launch its bike-share system this spring. Nice Ride Minnesota will receive a grant of $1.75 million through Bike/Walk Twin Cities, a program created through the 2005 federal highway bill to fund innovative bike and pedestrian projects. The City of Minneapolis has been a key partner in the funding effort. Nice Ride Minnesota released a preliminary Request for Proposals in September. That RFP is now published in final. To read the RFP and learn more about Nice Ride Minnesota, go to www.niceridemn.com."

Way to go, Nice Ride! MetroBike, LLC worked with Nice Ride Minnesota over the past few months and during this time I learned more about this exciting new program and the people who are making it possible. Minneapolis is in for a treat when Nice Ride Minnesota launches next year.

Boston Region Releases Tender

Like their beloved Red Sox, the City of Boston entered Spring Training! Well, bike-sharing Spring Training with the goal of joining the Big Leagues in Spring 2010. Mayor Menino & Boston Bikes announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a bike-share program.

Bike-sharing is part of Mayor Menino's vision to create a more vibrant, healthy, and green Boston. Menino said, "Successful bike-sharing programs in Europe have not only established biking as a significant means of transportation; they have transformed the entire culture and mindset around transportation." The RFP is for 1,500 bikes and 150 stations for the spring of 2010, but with the idea to expand to 6,000 bikes and 600 stations for Metro Boston. The goal of the program is to eliminate up to 315,000 car trips annually, reduce 750 tons of greenhouse gases, increase bike trips by 300%, and to create of over 50 new green jobs!

The RFP was released by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council of the Boston region. Being a regional tender will help their eventual program cross jurisdictional borders without any problems. A wise idea for other jurisdictions considering bike-sharing. - editor

Russell Meddin, Bike Share Philadelphia

image credit: Team on Top

Arlington, Virginia Releases Bike-sharing Tender

Arlington County, Virginia has released a Request for Proposals for the operation of the Arlington Bike-sharing Program (RFP #56-09). The tender proposes a unique relationship between a local government and bike-sharing operator. The vendor will be responsible for operating the service, which includes administration, maintaining and distributing bikes, and collecting data. Arlington’s responsibilities will be for marketing the service, finding advertisements for the bikes, and providing some customer care. A pre-bid conference for interested vendors will be held on March 5 and the RFP will close on April 2.

The tender has the vendor purchasing “an off-the-shelf system, if not having a system of its own devise, and operating it for the public’s benefit.” Even just one year ago there weren’t many options for off-the-shelf systems, but now a handful are on the market, including Public Bike System, nextbike, Intrago, Smoove, and B-cycle. Arlington will keep revenues generated from the service, which include the membership and usage fees as well as advertisement revenues. The tender also offers incentives for meeting strict performance standards and fines for not doing so.

Arlington County does not allow on-street advertising with bus shelters, kiosks, billboards, and the like, so it is unable to have a bike-sharing service offered as part of an advertising contract as many cities have done. It is hoping to compensate for this by having advertisements on the bikes, as this form of advertising is legal in the public domain in Arlington, to assist with the financial sustainability of the program.

MetroBike, LLC assisted Arlington County develop its tender.

image credit: BikeArlington