Lexington, KY - In the coming weeks, Yellow Bikes, Lexington's community bikes program, will once again be placed out on the sidewalks of downtown and nearby neighborhoods. Widely used in 2007, the program's first year, changes were made for the 2008 rollout to prevent the bike use policies from being widely abused. And usage declined as a result.
The system will remain largely unchanged from last year, but backers hope that maintaining the status quo now will save money for a much improved program in future years. "It's not a perfect system yet," said Phil Holoubek, a downtown developer and one of the driving forces behind the program's establishment two years ago. "In year two, we heard complaints from some people that that process was too difficult. I don't necessarily agree that it's too difficult, but we're going to continue to try to improve the program."
Holoubek said 60 of the original 80 bikes introduced to the streets in 2007 are still around. "We're very happy with that, and that compares very favorably with the retention rates of shared bike programs in other cities," Holoubek said.
The 20 that are no longer around either went missing or were damaged beyond repair during the first year of the program, when any key worked on any bike.
"The reason we have those 60 bikes still is because we had a bike wrangler that was going in everyone's backyard (to find the missing bikes). We didn't want to go through that in year two, so in year two the program obviously changed," he said.
The revamped program in place for '09 is much the same as last year, requiring riders to have a membership card - available through the Downtown Lexington Corporation for $10 - to obtain a key from retailers taking part in the program. After a bike is taken from a location and used, the rules call for its return to that spot.
"We tried to pick locations that have more extended hours," said Renee Jackson, president and executive director of the DLC. "That was the problem with our office, for example; it is not open on the weekends and it's not open at night."
While the program was not utilized last year as much as in 2007, Jackson and Holoubek said they wanted to hold off on any changes until they receive a response to their application to completely overhaul the program with a $260,000 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Grant.
"We've applied for the CMAQ grant, so we really didn't want to spend a lot of money trying to do anything too different this year. That's the main reason we really aren't changing until we know where we stand with that grant," Jackson said.
If awarded the grant - notification should come by late summer or fall - Holoubek and Jackson would like to buy a new system similar to B-cycle, a community bikes program owned by Humana, Trek Bicycles and advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Unlike the current system, B-cycle doesn't require membership. Essentially anyone can rent a bike with the use of a credit card from one of the system's "B-stands," which look like a bike rack attached to an old-style gas pump. The bikes are free to use for a certain time and place a reserve on the rider's credit card in case the bike is not returned to a B-cycle stand.
The B-cycles "have tracking systems in them - not just to track the location of the bike, but the system knows when you're riding the bike," Holoubek said. "It will track how far the bike's been ridden, average speed and all that, then upload the information to the B-cycle Web site. And you can go to the site and see how much time and distance you've ridden on the bikeÖ The key thing is it also tracks the equivalent number of pounds of carbon emissions not put into the environment" as a result of using a bike rather than a car to travel that distance.
Were the grant to come through, Jackson and Holoubek envision B-cycle stands not just in various areas around the downtown, but at the Kentucky Horse Park for riding along the Legacy Trail, currently being constructed to link downtown to the park, plus more stands along other trails and outposts around town.
"The access of the program becomes easier because you don't have to necessarily take it back to the place you got it," Jackson said. "You can ride from point to point."
The Yellow Bikes program was kick-started with donations of $12,500 from companies and organizations
with downtown interests. "What we're doing this year still is a short-term fix," Holoubek said. "The ultimate goal is to move toward a shared bike program like you'd see in Paris, France, or any of your larger cities that have had some big successes. But to get to that top-grade shared bike system takes a lot more money than $12,500."
If funding comes through with the CMAQ grant, an RFP would be ready to go out with timelines to allow for the new generation of the community bike program to be ready to go in the spring of 2010. In the meantime, those who did not get Yellow Bike membership cards last year can purchase them at the DLC office on the fifth floor of the Phoenix Building, or during Thursday Night Live at Cheapside Park beginning May 7.