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A group of Short North Businesses including Tigertree, Sandbox, and Paradise Garage jointly announced today that they’re launching the first ever bikeshare program for Columbus: EveryoneBikes. Ten brand new Africa Bikes will be available as of 5pm today for riders to borrow for errands, tours, exercise and other types of short trips around the city.
Their goal is to soon have fifty bikes available throughout Downtown, the Arena District, and the Short North neighborhoods. The bikes will be on display in front of Tigertree during tomorrow’s Gallery Hop.
The group chose to stock their fleet with Africa Bikes not only because of their ease of use, but also due to their ethical business practices. “For every two bikes sold, one bike is provided to an aide worker in Africa which allows to make a difference not only here Central Ohio, but also around the world.” says David Hunegnaw of Sandbox.
EveryoneBikes also aims to help further the “green” transformation taking place in Columbus by providing an alternative transportation alternative for locals. “This innovative approach to Bikeshare will give residents and visitors an option to use a carbon-neutral mode of transportation to navigate our city” says Josh Quinn, owner of Tigertree.
More information can be found online at EveryoneBikes.org.
saw the bikes lined up outside of tigertree! Looks great!
Kudos to all involved in this. It’s people like you guys who are making Columbus a great city. This is AWESOME.
“I would check with some of the existing cycling groups around town. Some of them may already have printed pamphlets that they more than happy to provide.”
I seem to recall CB had some when I was working with them last year.
It’s pretty simple:
Ride on the right with traffic
Stop at traffic controls
Signal lane changes or turns
Stay off the sidewalk
Take the lane if you feel it is unsafe to share with another vehicle
Smile and have fun!
Stop at traffic controls – except of course green lights. Then you can go. Also, the smiling is essential.
I thought that one (traffic controls) might be self explanatory.
I wish that were the case. I bike commute to work and constantly see bicyclists who see traffic controls as optional. Usually they inch up and race across when they feel it is ‘safe’. I even saw a group of roadbikers in spandex do this in grandview today. It gives the law abiding bikers a bad rap.
I was in Montreal last weekend. I have to say, I have never seen a more “bike friendly” city in my life. They had dedicated bike lanes on main city roads that were separated by a median strip. They also had rent-a-bike stands all over the city. Must of been over 100 of these, just use a credit card, rent a bike and then return it to any stand in the city. I really hope Columbus keeps it up. It was great seeing so many people riding bikes in Montreal.
hopefully it’s not exactly “just like France.”
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/vandalism-vexes-paris-bike-rental-system/
How about taking some of the good bikes off COTA’s hands? http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/08/03/cota_bikes.ART_ART_08-03-09_B1_IOEL313.html
RE: traffic rule pamphlet-Check out the MORPC bike maps, they have some good info on general riding on the map. Paradise Garage probably has one you could look at.
I like the new picture.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Free rides in Short North Shops start bike-share program with 10 sets of wheels
Sunday, August 9, 2009
BY STEVE BUSHONG Full Article Link
Excerpts:
* Ten bicycles are available with Everyone Bikes, the bike-sharing program.
* To get a bike, riders leave their credit card and driver’s license numbers at one of the rental spots, which are listed at http://www.everyonebikes.org
* Riders have two hours with the bike, which must be returned to the same rental location.
* The bikes are available during business hours, generally 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
* Each of the 10 businesses in the program bought a bike.
* The shared bikes are Kona’s AfricaBikes, for every two bikes sold in America, one is donated to workers in Africa.
* Those who borrow the bike also get a heavy-duty lock to keep it safe while they shop or dine.
* The program will soon expand to include 40 bikes. The goal is to have 100 bikes in the Short North and Downtown.
Awesome Initiative… I’ve seen this project in several other cities where I’ve lived and visited. I’m be happy to share some ideas. Next up, more bike lanes.
Just wanted to let you know about the kick off party for the Everyone Bikes Bike Sharing program. Come along for the ride and enjoy the post ride party.
You might want to bring your own bike, there are 10 in the Bike Share, but hopefully we’ll have more riders.
Everyone Bikes Kick Off Party
Sunday August, 23rd at Kickstart in the Short North. At 6 PM
We’ll do a quick bike ride and then drink some beverages and hang out together in the parking lot.
Blog Post with poster:
http://www.everyonebikes.org/blog/?p=36
Kickstart is on the northwest Corner of High St and Price Ave
913 North High St.
http://www.thekickstart.net/
Everyone Bikes is online at http://www.everyonebikes.org/
I know it’s an old post but can you guys give us an update on EB after about a year?
I’ve directed a few people to you who were interested in starting bike shares and have seen some rumors/ideas floating for bike share as part of the downtown plans. I would hate to see existing ideas duplicated when something already exists here.