Bike Sharing

The project Request for Proposals is here.

Bike sharing is coming to San Francisco! A regional pilot program led by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) in partnership with the SFMTA will bring approximately 50 bike share stations and 500 bikes to San Francisco’s downtown core beginning in summer 2012. The SFMTA is working with a regional team to implement this pilot along the Caltrain corridor in San Francisco, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City and San Jose and shown in this Regional Bike Sharing System map. The project is funded through a combination of local, regional and federal grants with major funding coming from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Innovative Bay Area Climate Initiatives Grant Program (BACI).

For an overview of the bike share project, read more below, and take a look at this factsheet about bike sharing in San Francisco.

What is bike sharing?

Similar to car sharing, bicycle sharing is a term used to describe a membership-based system of short-term bicycle rental.  Members can check a bicycle out from a network of automated bicycle stations, ride to their destination, and return the bicycle to a different station.  Bicycle sharing is enjoying a global explosion in growth with the development of purpose-built bicycles and stations that employ high tech features like smartcards, solar power, and wireless internet and GPS technologies. For an overview of bike sharing click here.

What are the benefits of bike sharing?

There are many assumed benefits of bike sharing. Bike share trips provide an alternative transportation option for short trips and increase accessibility to transit services. Connecting bike share with transit allows riders to be located further away and still be able to access a transit stop or station. Other potential benefits include the following:

• User Cost Savings - Using bicycle share is less expensive than operating and owning a motor vehicle.
• Travel Time Savings - For many short trips within the service area, bicycle share trips are likely faster and more convenient than using a motor vehicle.
• Congestion Reduction - More people using bicycles may decrease the number of people using motor vehicles and therefore reducing traffic congestion.
• Relieve Transit Ridership - Where transit is at or exceeding capacity, bike share provides an alternative mode of transportation.
• Improved Public Heath - Bicycle share will increase active transportation and exercise.

Who is involved with launching the San Francisco bike sharing system?

The BAAQMD is the overall regional project lead, coordinating the planning and implementation efforts of the local partners: the City and County of San Francisco, the Cities of San Jose, Mountain View and Palo Alto in Santa Clara County and the City of Redwood City in San Mateo County. The SFMTA is leading the project in San Francisco, and we are working in cooperation with our City and County partners, including the Planning Department, Department of Public Works, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and the Port of San Francisco. The regional partners will be selecting a contractor in 2012 to install, operate, and manage the system.

Where will bike sharing be located in San Francisco?

As the San Francisco Bicycle Sharing Pilot Service Area map (PDF) presents, in San Francisco, the pilot service area will be centered in San Francisco’s employment- and transit-rich Downtown/SOMA corridor between the Financial District, Market Street and the Transbay and Caltrain terminals.  This area is notably flat, has the densest bikeway network coverage in San Francisco and enjoys the highest levels of cycling, yet those who commute by transit from cities to the east and south encounter difficulties bringing a bicycle with them on BART or Caltrain. Much of San Francisco’s densely urbanized northeastern quadrant is similarly well-suited to bicycle sharing.

When will bike sharing launch in San Francisco?

The regional partners will be selecting a vendor to install, operate, and manage the bike sharing system in 2012 with the goal of a system launch in summer 2012!

Further Information

To request a bike sharing location, please complete the Bicycle Parking and Sharing Request Form.

Explore:

• Overview
• Pilot Area