In the latest high-tech expansion of the countywide Bike Share Program, Metro and LADOT have announced that more than 200 new, electric pedal-assist Metro Bikes will be available at 20+ Classic Metro Bike Share stations throughout the Central Los Angeles area — including DTLA, Union Station West Portal, Exposition Park, University Park, Pico Union, Koreatown, Westlake, Echo Park and Silver Lake. The bikes will be available starting today through the end of summer.
Electric Metro Bikes provide bike share riders with an electric “boost” for extra power and can lessen the physical effort required to ride and help cover greater distances and reach hilly neighborhoods.
Users interested in choosing an electric Metro e-bike can download the Metro Bike Share App from the Apple App Store for those with iOS devices or the Google Play store for those with Android devices. The app enables riders to check bike and dock availability and find the nearest Classic Metro Bike Station to their location, among other features (here’s the bike share station map).
There will be an additional $1 fee for unlocking the bikes that will be waived until August 31. The fee will go toward maintaining the electric bikes and ensuring battery packs are charged.
The bikes are operated by Metro’s bike share contractor Bicycle Transit Systems, Inc. They are produced by the company’s equipment provider BCycle and are powered by mid-drive pedal assist motors and batteries with speeds up to 17 miles per hour.
The e-bikes and station expansion are made possible through a $2+ million Active Transportation Program Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grant that Metro received last year from the state of California. Metro worked closely with the city of Los Angeles to determine the location of new bike share stations in the Central L.A. area, including near major transit hubs and key local destinations.
Metro’s Bike Share program is planning to expand to many other communities within L.A. County, including North Hollywood and other San Fernando Valley cities to create a region-wide system of more than 4,000 bicycles countywide.
To date, nearly 730,000 trips have been made on Metro Bike Share in Los Angeles County. Bike share riders have collectively traveled 2.2 million miles on the bicycles since the program launched in mid-2016 and have reduced 2.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions – a major contributor to climate change.
For more information on Metro’s Bike Share Program, visit www.metro.net/bikeshare.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
They should make the electric bikes dockless. The non-electric can stay docked as they are much more likely to be used for recreational trips, whereas the e-bikes are better suited for commuting and distances over 1 mile.
This is a waste of 2+ million dollars of grant money. Most of those trips were recreational so they didn’t lower commuting emissions.
Regardless of whether this is true or not, soon Metro should have pretty good data on whether bike shares actually help with commuting or first/last mile, because the data is linked up to TAP cards.