Valley Bike Share is coming to Amherst, Holyoke, Northampton and Springfield, and eventually elsewhere in the Pioneer Valley – including the town of South Hadley. Nearly three years of planning and feasibility studies support the idea that our region is ready for bike share.
To meet our region’s unique challenges, Valley Bike Share will be designed to promote short bike trips within core communities, where clusters of large employers, colleges, shopping, tourist destinations and higher density housing can readily be connected.
In a public survey in four of the participating Valley communities, 80 percent of respondents indicated that they would use a bike share program if provided.
Bike share programs follow a similar business model as the very popular and successful ZipCar. With bike share programs, users pay a fee in order to use a bike to travel in lieu of jumping in the car. They have been successfully implemented in over 70 communities in the United States, from big cities like New York and Boston to mid-sized cities like Des Moines, Iowa, and Greenville, South Carolina, and to small cities like Boulder, Colorado, and Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Bike share programs have also succeeded in cities with climates colder than our own such as Fargo, North Dakota; Portland, Maine, and Montreal, Quebec.
Minneapolis, which has both hotter summers and harsher winters, has also implemented a successful bike share program.
It’s also important to note that car ownership and use rates are much lower among the millennials and other young creative workers and urban dwellers that our communities must attract and retain in order to ensure the vibrant economic future this region deserves.
If we want to be supporting all of our populations, we should be meeting the needs of drivers, as well as the growing number of residents who prefer alternative forms of transportation, and in doing so encourage our college graduates and emerging leaders to stay in our communities.
A majority of Pioneer Valley trips to work, shopping, and other daily destinations are now made by car. This is both because of personal choices that we all make and because of the lack of choices our collective transportation system provides us.
As a result, the lion’s share of both public and private transportation dollars goes to support cars, usually on single-occupancy trips.
The hard work and due diligence completed thus far by five Valley communities, the University of Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission suggests the Pioneer Valley would benefit from a bike share program that will allow residents to forgo the car keys on many of these daily trips.
Because bike share programs are meant for short-distance trips to replace car trips, the bike design is rugged in order to increase the safety of the rider and ensure durability for frequent use.
While the network of bike share stations will cover a considerable distance from Amherst to Springfield, riding the entirety of the expanse in one trip is not the goal of the program. Our four communities have already been awarded transportation funding to purchase bicycles and install stations in the coming year, which gives us the financial benefit of a joint buying club to implement the program.
The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission is providing staffing to coordinate our regional entity, similar to how the four cities that are members of the Boston Hubway bike share coordinate their system.
Securing the over $1 million in transportation money last month was yet another milestone towards making Valley Bike a financial reality.
In addition, since the Gazette’s coverage of that funding announcement, Valley Bike Share has received outreach from local businesses interested in sponsoring the initial bike share stations and bikes.
We know ensuring sponsorships cover operation costs will be one of our greatest challenges in making this program a success, but one needs only to watch a few minutes of television, surf the web or flip through a local newspaper to recognize there are regional advertising dollars to be found here in the Valley.
We are all proud to be from communities whose chief elected officials and administrators have provided the leadership to make this happen, and urge you to support these efforts. Suggest that your employer or institution sponsor or advertise. Sign up for Valley Bike Share membership. Share our efforts to provide transportation choices for all.
In writing this essay, Wayne Feiden, Northampton’s director of planning and sustainability, consulted with the following Valley Bike Share Steering Committee members: Stephanie Ciccarello of Amherst, Phil Dromey and Scott Hanson of Springfield, Marcos Marrero of Holyoke, Michael Sullivan of South Hadley and Chris Curtis of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.