City Council & Raleigh BikeShare - Update

Last Tuesday, the City Council heard an update from Raleigh’s Transportation Planner, Eric Lamb, on the feasibility of Bike Share and listened to input from members of the public at their meeting. Leaders from Citrix and Rex Healthcare were on hand to share their support and interest in sponsoring the program. Wake Commissioner Sig Hutchinson spoke up on behalf of the supporters who packed the council chambers, and even delivered a bike share poem he penned (we're working on tracking down a copy). Several councilors had additional questions about station locations, exact financial commitments from the private sector, and more information on Bike Share vendors. To properly address these questions, the council has postponed a vote until after a 'working session' meeting on March 15th at 11:30 AM. Between now and then, it's important for your councilors to hear from you! As their constituent, your voice can make a difference in making Bike Share happen. Here is contact info on the City website: https://www.raleighnc.gov/government/content/BoardsCommissions/Articles/CityCouncil.html To address some questions that came up at Tuesday's meeting, and help with your letter writing, we’ve put together a quick FAQ below. --------------------Bike Share FAQ------------------ Should the city get into the 'bike business'? Similar to other non-car transportation alternatives, bike share is a legitimate mode of public transportation that has extensive public health, tourism, and economic benefits. For these inherent public-benefits, the city invests in the 'bus business' and the 'convention business' - whose existence benefit all Raleigh citizens, users and non-users alike. This sounds expensive, how do we know we’re getting a fair deal? Managing, maintaining, and balancing the supply of bicycles and available docks to keep usage and access predictable is key to the program’s success. This takes multiple people, space, and vehicles. Like any city project, vendor selection will occur through a competitive bid process. Why not put bike share in every major park? Recreation is a common and welcomed use of bike share, and can contribute to system revenue, but the true success of this program is enabling more people to adopt the bicycle as a legitimate means of transportation, leading to less traffic, safer roads, and healthier residents. To achieve that, Raleigh's system is planned similar to other successful programs - focusing at first on a connected network around dense populations and popular destinations.