From Colorado to Canberra, e-bike libraries are on the rise and helping break down traditional barriers to riding.

Before I ever rode an electric bicycle, I judged them harshly. As a longtime bicycle commuter, I classified e-bikes as something that wasn’t for me. If there’s a battery involved, does it even qualify as biking? That all changed the moment I rode one for the first time. 

My introduction to electric bicycles was through Boulder, Colorado’s Bcycle bike share, and I was instantly hooked. Although it still required me to pedal, suddenly hills were easier, I could easily offload my heavy laptop bag and I wasn’t breaking a sweat. A month later, I bought a $1,500 e-bike of my own. There’s no bike share station near my home in South Boulder nor at my office in East Boulder, and my new vehicle makes the 12-mile round trip easy, even with 40 pounds of groceries. The e-bike has completely replaced my in-town car use, lowering my carbon footprint and boosting my cardio. 

My experience underlies how e-bikes are transformative, for individuals and the environment, but also a marker of privilege. I had $1,500 in savings that I could spend on something I didn’t need. And, if I wanted to spread out the payments, I have easy access to good credit. For many low-income individuals — those who are less likely to own a car or live close to their places of employment and other essential services — such an extravagant purchase would be out of the question yet all the more vital.

Equitable bike share is one solution and the reason the Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) exists. We help promote expansion into historically marginalized neighborhoods through community engagement and we’re advocates of low-income pass options. Despite seven years of effort, however, many bike share systems continue to be built for a certain type of nine-to-five, white-collar commuter, concentrated in downtown city centers and not well integrated with transit. Even for those who do have access to bike share, it may not include electric bikes, which better allow people of all ages and abilities to travel farther distances with heavier loads.

In this context, the growth of e-bike libraries makes sense. Some, such as those run by the Vermont-based nonprofit Local Motion, are indiscriminate in who they cater to. Local Motion lends e-bikes out of its Burlington headquarters and on a roving basis across six other communities in the state, exposing more people to the technology and encouraging personal adoption. Borrowers are able to take home cargo e-bikes and other commuter options for a week at a time to see how it suits their daily needs. Similarly, the Canberra Electric Bike Library in Canberra, Australia — run by the nonprofit SEE-Change and supported by the government — allows residents to try a variety of e-bikes for up to two weeks free of charge. 

Many other e-bike schemes specifically cater to low-income populations or essential workers. Two 2021 BBSP grantees, People For Mobility Justice and Reddy Bikeshare, set up e-bike libraries of their own. The former is a long-term project based in California’s San Fernando Valley that will make 100 pedal-assist e-bikes available to low-income individuals that don’t have easy access to other vehicles. The latter is based in Upstate New York and repurposed donated Uber JUMP bikes into two libraries run by the nonprofits Create a Healthier Niagara Collaborative and the East Side Bike Club. Each library offers around 50 e-bikes free of charge to locals, who only need to sign up online and complete a 20-30 minute orientation. The hope is that by partnering with community organizations and individuals in areas where unemployment rates are high, income levels are low and health outcomes are bleak, the free e-bikes might be a force for good.

A completely different model is being piloted by Colorado agencies at the city and state levels. Launched in fall 2020, the Can Do Colorado eBike Pilot Program used funds from the Colorado Energy Office to supply 13 essential workers in Denver with e-bikes. The success of the program inspired other cities throughout Colorado to do the same, including Pueblo, Durango, Fort Collins and Boulder. As the Mile High City looked to iterate on the pilot, e-bike libraries made a lot of sense.

“We wanted to focus on under-resourced communities that don’t have great mobility options,” said Mike Salisbury, transportation energy lead at Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilience. “We want to give people more options to get to the places they need to go in their lives, whether that's work or the store or a doctor's appointment.”

Denver currently has three e-bike libraries throughout the city in the Sun Valley, Globeville and Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods — all historically underserved communities. The libraries, each of which is operated by trusted community-based organizations, are among the first initiatives to be funded by the city’s Climate Protection Fund. The locations include Prodigy Coffeehouse, which does workforce development training, Focus Points, a family resource center and various affordable Denver Housing Authority developments. All of the e-bikes — about 70 total — were sourced from FattE-Bikes, a locally owned and operated e-bike shop.

Although it’s too early to draw any conclusions, Salisbury notes that residents have been consistently checking out the bikes and using them. “People are doing exactly what we were hoping they would do, which is using them to get to a job or appointments,” he said.

Denver’s motivation for the libraries is influenced by both its aggressive climate goals, as well as a focus on equity. While electric vehicles are being positioned as an environmental solution by the Biden Administration, the fact remains that in order to practice transportation justice — whereby more people have more mobility options and certain demographics don’t bear the brunt of car culture’s negative effects — we simply need fewer vehicles on our roads overall. 

“E-bikes can fill that gap between what someone can do on a regular bike and what they can do in a car,” said Salisbury. “There are also so many benefits, especially when it comes to public health — any kind of active transportation is a huge plus but e-bikes also reduce emissions, which helps improve air quality.”

However, one of the main barriers to the widespread adoption of bicycling is a lack of safe infrastructure; many people fear for their safety while riding, especially in under-resourced neighborhoods that tend to have fewer protected bike lanes and disproportionate levels of enforcement. Denver committed to building a 125-mile network by 2024, as well as substantially upping its investment in protected bike lanes.

“We need more of that,” said Salisbury, adding that cities need to ensure people feel comfortable riding and offer more ways to do so. “We need to do both at the same time — provide the infrastructure and different ways to use that infrastructure.”

For other municipalities looking to launch e-bike libraries of their own, costs will range substantially depending on the types of e-bikes stocked as well as other logistical factors, including where the bikes will be stored (Denver is using old shipping containers) and who will run the day-to-day operations. Denver is leading the way when it comes to offering free e-bikes to under-resourced communities but Salisbury hopes others will soon follow suit, especially as more funding opens up for climate resiliency projects.

In Oakland, California, a $1 million e-bike library is in the works using funding from CALSTART. The project, which aims to bring 500 e-bikes to low-income Oaklanders, is just one component of the Oakland Department of Transportation’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Action Plan. Crucially, the initiative will contract with local bike shops and employ a comprehensive community engagement strategy. 

While bike libraries aren’t exactly novel, the focus on free e-bikes is. And although none of the e-bike library models are perfect — for example, more could be done to include folks with disabilities — they’re an important first step. Ultimately, our ability to move forward as a species will depend largely on how we facilitate movement in people’s day-to-day lives.

Research out of Colorado State University highlights how comprehensive mode shift could prevent more than 15,000 deaths a year—and not just in crashes.

There’s been a lot of great bike-related research published this year, including studies highlighting the link between bike share use and protected bike lanes, as well as the environmental benefits of bike share and its positive impact on public health. New research adds credence to the positive impact bicycling has on health outcomes, finding that more than 200,000 premature deaths — around 15,000 in the U.S. alone — could be prevented each year if countries support more urban bicycling by 2050.

The study, the first of its kind, modeled what a comprehensive mode shift could look like from a global health perspective using three different scenarios. In the first, things remain unchanged and so do the rates at which people die from car crashes, air pollution or sedentary disease (think cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity). The second scenario, however, modeled the benefits of progressive transportation policies on urban bicycling over the course of 30 years, with 8% of new bike trips replacing cars. The third scenario assumed that 100% of new bike trips replaced car trips by 2050. The modeling allowed researchers to estimate how many lives might be saved by a global shift towards bicycling.

Published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the study compared 17 countries with high levels of urban riding, including Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Research was led by David Rojas-Rueda, Ph.D., an environmental epidemiologist and professor at Colorado State University, in collaboration with Julen Egiguren and M.J. Nieuwenhuijsen, scientists from the Barcelona Institute of Global Health. Their modeling work is based on policies that have been proven to lead to an increase in biking levels:

Retroﬁtting biking infrastructure onto existing roads to create networks on arterial streets, small residential streets and intercity roads.

Building and expanding bike share systems in large cities.

Reforming laws and enforcement practices to better protect active transportation.

Investing in walking facilities and public transport to oﬀer trips that can be combined with bike trips.

Eliminating policies that support additional motorized vehicle use, such as free parking and fuel subsidies.

Establishing congestion pricing, travel fees and development impact fees to disincentivize driving. 

“This study should be seen as a call to implement policies that support sustainable mobility and a healthy urban design,” said Rojas-Rueda. “Current policies will impact our future and the health of future generations.”

Even in the scenario where just 8% of new biking trips replaced car trips by 2050, the researchers found that 8,589 lives could be saved globally, with 1,227 in the U.S. Not only does that exceed the number of bicyclists that are currently killed every year (697 in 2020) but 8% is a conservative estimate if every country invested in the policies outlined above. The true number likely falls somewhere closer to the 100% estimate, which researchers found resulted in 205,424 premature deaths being prevented annually around the world.

As in Rojas-Rueda’s past research, this study supports the fact the benefits of bicycling far outweigh the risks of riding through city pollution, even in countries with poorer air quality, such as China and India. His body of research also points to a larger issue in the way we typically discuss the future of transportation, often focusing on the need to reduce emissions but not acknowledging that we need to also reduce bad health incomes. This study showcases how progressive bike policies can do both. 

What the research doesn’t touch on are all of the additional benefits that would accompany a world with less driving, including fewer collisions between motorists. Speaking with Streetsblog’s Kea Wilson, Rojas-Rueda notes how bikeable communities tend to be more livable, with more green space, affordable housing, grocery stores and other essential services, as well as lower levels of air and noise pollution. While somewhat less quantifiable, noise and other urban detritus can lead to anxiety, stress and anger, none of which is good for your health. The mental and emotional benefits of daily exercise are also well-documented.

The obvious question then is why aren’t countries everywhere committed to the policies we know lead to a better climate, public health outcomes, and quality of life? In the U.S., the Build Back Better Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are a step in the right direction but they’re not enough to fundamentally reimagine how we get around. And that’s a shame — as the research shows, there are lives at stake.

Our current environmental predicament demands unconventional ideas and bold action across the board.

Imagine if instead of companies purchasing carbon offsets to plant trees, they instead offset their emissions by purchasing e-bikes for delivery workers? 

How about if we took money that was earmarked for highway expansions and instead built safer, protected infrastructure and paid folks to ride their bikes?

What if for every car taken off the road and scrapped, all Americans received transit and bike share passes or a heavily subsidized e-bike? 

At least in regards to the last point, things are looking up.

Last month, Vancouver announced a partnership between its transit authority, TransitLink, and the not-for-profit SCRAP-IT. For every fossil-fuel car scrapped, residents are now eligible for a public transit pass worth about $800 CAD. For some 25 years, SCRAP-IT has been working in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta to encourage drivers to give up their cars in exchange for transit passes, electric vehicle subsidies, carshare credits, e-bikes and cash rebates. 

The organization is also unique in the sense that once the cars are in their possession, they’re truly scrapped (dismantled and shredded), rather than recycled for parts, which only keeps fuel-reliant vehicles on the road. Currently, SCRAP-IT also offers an 11-month EcoPass for the Victoria Regional Transit System, as well as large rebates for new and used electric vehicles, both in conjunction with the government-sponsored Clean BC Go Electric Program. 

While the authority is hopeful the new program will help the 2.4-million-person metropolis meet its climate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, more could be done to encourage change. For example, the passes are limited to a year and don’t include bike share, as Vancouver’s micromobility system isn’t yet integrated with transit. This is an oversight for a city that’s committed to building out its bike network and keen on solving first and last-mile connections for suburban commuters.

In 2019, California’s Clean Cars 4 All program — which, like the new Canadian programs, offers incentives for low-income residents to trade in older, more polluting vehicles — was amended to include e-bikes and bike share memberships. Although the program isn’t up and rolling throughout the state, the Bay Area has begun accepting applications for qualifying residents. Applicants that turn in a car that’s at least 15 years old receive a $7,500 PEX Visa that can be put towards one or more e-bikes, plus necessary bike accessories, with any remainder used for transit and bike share passes.

While other California regions are working on incorporating e-bikes into their own programs, more funding is needed to keep up with demand. At the federal level, no such benefit exists, although if passed, the E-BIKE Act and the Bicycle Commuter Act would be an enthusiastic step in the right direction. On November 19, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Build Back Better (BBB) Act, which includes the latest version of the E-BIKE Act, or a 30% refundable tax credit, up to $900, for qualifying new electric bicycles that cost less than $4,000. It also includes a bicycle commuter benefit, allowing commuters to receive up to $81/month as a pre-tax benefit for biking to work that would also cover costs associated with bike share.

The Build Back Better Act has yet to move through reconciliation, however, and even if it makes it to the other side unscathed, we still need drastic action to curb climate change and facilitate mass mode shift. At a recent State of the Industry NABSA panel, Lina Fedirko, transportation program manager at ClimateWorks, spoke for many when she noted the lack of creativity and action government authorities have shown when it comes to facilitating mode shift. “We have to make driving expensive and really inconvenient if we want to speed up the curb,” said Fedirko.

In the shared micromobility space, we’re encouraged by the recent growth of e-bike libraries amongst Better Bike Share Partnership grantees in California and New York, as well as by other government agencies and nonprofits around the world, from Canberra, Australia, to Vermont. Throughout Colorado, programs likewise make e-bikes available free of charge through bike share, libraries housed at community organizations and affordable housing complexes and through gifts for select essential workers. 

As much as we need new programming, shared micromobility systems everywhere still need to continue working to expand bike share equitably, prioritize community engagement, subsidize low-income programs and create transit integration. When it comes to sustainability initiatives, more is always better.

The Argument for Bikes-for-Clunkers Programs

These six U.S. cities are top of class when it comes to their bike networks, infrastructure and political willpower.

At PeopleForBikes, we put a lot of emphasis on a city’s bike network and its residents’ ability to safely bike to the things they need, such as transit connections, jobs, schools, grocery stores and hospitals, as well as the things they like, such as recreational amenities like parks, trails or major shopping centers. We also account for a community’s perception of its local bike scene — every year, we conduct an online survey to hear from people that live, work and play in the cities we’re rating. 

Based on a combination of their network and community scores, all of the places on this list ranked among the top 10 cities in the U.S. Although some of these scores might seem low, cities with scores of 50 and up demonstrate higher ridership, improved safety and greater access than their peers. We spoke to experts in each location to better understand what it takes to build better bicycling communities on a large scale. 

San Francisco’s bike culture is long-established and draws from a 30-plus year history of Critical Mass, a form of direct action where people meet at a certain location and time in order to amplify bicycling via a large group ride.  

“The culture in San Francisco is very supportive of change and you have various organizations pushing for improvements,” said Mike Sallabarry, senior transportation engineer with the city. “It’s not just about on-street facilities, it’s about the different programs and events — all those things add up.”

From big events like Bike to Work Day to smaller workshops and educational gatherings, there are plenty of opportunities for folks looking to build community around bikes in the Bay Area. Even before the pandemic hit, San Francisco had a vibrant Sunday Streets program, a nod to more livable, car-free neighborhoods. Since the city is relatively small — roughly 47 square miles — many residents naturally see driving as unnecessary and unsustainable.

“San Francisco gets a reputation for being a hilly city, which of course it is, but so much of our network bypasses those steep hills,” said Matt Lasky, a project manager at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). “Recently, with e-bikes, it’s become even more manageable and accessible.”

San Francisco’s commitment to building out additional bicycle infrastructure has also helped, as has the pace at which it's doing so. In 2019, San Francisco Mayor London Breed pledged to build 20 miles of new protected bike lanes over the course of two years, doubling down on the city’s Vision Zero plan by focusing on high injury zones. This May, Mayor Breed announced that the city had exceeded that goal, laying out additional plans for more and better bike parking, as well as safer and slower streets. 

“Our network build-out has accelerated significantly in recent years, primarily due to our quick build program,” said Sallabarry, noting that the process involves using low-cost materials to focus on safety improvements. Adds Lasky, “The program allows us to evaluate what’s working and then iterate on it.”

San Francisco now boasts an extensive, connected network of 450-plus miles of bike lanes, roughly 40 miles of which are protected. The city hopes to release a map of the network that shows the existing bikeways and where gaps exist, allowing for the prioritization of connectivity going forward.

Since all of New York City's five boroughs could be considered a city in and of itself, our City Rating program scores each borough individually. Of the five, four ranked in the top 10 for big cities with Brooklyn scoring highest (62), followed by Manhattan (55), Queens (54) and the Bronx (44). Although automobile ownership in New York City is lower than the national average (about 45% versus around 90%), it’s not surprising that the one borough lagging behind when it comes to bicycling, Staten Island, also has the highest rates of car ownership (83%).

New York City also boasts the highest number of transit users in the country and in many areas, is densely populated. In Manhattan, which only spans about 22 square miles, there’s the added benefit of everything being relatively close together. When it comes to bike infrastructure, however, what really sets the city apart is its commitment to careful planning combined with rapid implementation. Over the last six years, the city built more than 50 miles of bike lanes each year. Even more impressive, it averaged more than 20 miles of protected lanes per year.

“I think the most important thing you can do [for bicycling] is to build more bike infrastructure,” said Ted Wright, director of the bicycle and greenway program at the NYC Department of Transportation. “You can’t just do protected bike lanes, you can’t only do capital projects — you have to deal with what’s out there right now, listen to where people are riding, use your planners to think about where people could be riding, and go out and build stuff.” 

New York City’s aggressiveness when it comes to construction has paid off, with the number of bicyclists in the city jumping roughly 8% per year since the ‘80s. In particular, the city prioritized projects that have immediate benefits, such as bike lanes across bridges or greenways, what Wright refers to as “beautiful highways for bikes.” The city relies on both data and listening to its stakeholders — accounting for all users and modes is especially crucial when space is at a premium. By improving on projects that weren’t quite right, New York City has managed to build trust and success over time.

Despite having a reputation for rain, the climate in Seattle is relatively temperate. When it does rain, it tends to be more of a constant drizzle rather than a downpour and the city rarely gets snow or intense heat. Add in the fact that Seattle is known as an outdoorsy place — it’s the birthplace of REI, after all — and you get a populace that’s already primed for biking.

“We also have a great advocacy community that has a good relationship with the city,” said Serena Lehman, senior transportation planner with the city. “They push the city to be bolder and prioritize funding for bike projects.”

Even internally, Lehman notes that in the last 15 years, bike champions have become ubiquitous, helping to connect bicycling to transit, advocate for connections from certain neighborhoods or allocate funds for underserved communities. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has also made a big commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, opening up substantial funding for bikes and allowing for the completion of critical infrastructure segments that connect Seattle’s larger network.

“We prioritize our unbuilt segments based on several factors,” said Lehman. “The top factors being safety, then equity and finally connectivity, ridership and livability.”

In 2014, Seattle adopted an ambitious bicycle master plan, prioritizing 226 new citywide network miles to be completed by 2030. Today, the city has completed 33 miles and plans to have another 55 done by 2024. In order to make it easier for new people to ride and commute, Seattle prioritized building key bicycle connections to transit, emphasizing first and last mile connections.

Portland has a reputation for being a bikeable city, something that’s only bolstered by events like Sunday Parkways, where streets are closed for folks to “discover active transportation” and the World Naked Bike Ride, meant to highlight the vulnerability of bicyclists. When new folks move to Portland or relocate in town, the city’s SmartTrips program delivers tailored emails and materials showcasing various active transportation options for their new residence. Unsurprisingly, Portland has the highest percentage of bike commuters for any large U.S. city.

“There’s a long history of advocacy at the political level that stretches back decades, as well as advocacy at the community level,” said John Brady, communications director at the Portland Bureau of Transportation. “There's a tradition of biking in Portland that has flowed both on the policy side of things and also on the culture side of things.”

Portland continues to build infrastructure at an impressive clip, emphasizing network connections between neighborhoods through its Missing Links program. As a bridge town with major freeways that bisect its core, the city has begun to build north-west crossings over interstates and bicycle-pedestrian bridges across the Willamette River. In order to bring in new bikers, the city also focused on expanding greenways and building more infrastructure in East Portland, where more historically marginalized communities reside.

“As a city, we’ve begun assessing everything we do through the lens of racial justice, and biking isn't immune from that,” said Brady, noting that PBOT has a full-time equity and inclusion manager and that they’ve also prioritized the expansion of their fully electric bike share system. “There’s safety in the sense of not being hit by a car while riding, but there’s also personal safety from bigotry and violence. We can build a really great bicycle facility but if Black or Latino Portlanders don’t feel safe taking advantage of it, then we’re not completely doing our job.”

Every city on this list has a bike share program but, when it comes to successful community outreach, none quite compare to Philadelphia's Indego system. The city of Philadelphia is a founding member of the Better Bike Share Partnership and from its inception, Indego has maintained strong equity and educational components, working to bring biking to low-income and historically marginalized communities.

“In our bike network development, we've been able to learn from Indego on how to closely work with neighborhoods,” said Kelley Yemen, Philadelphia’s director of complete streets. “Maybe what’s needed isn’t a bike lane but rather street calming on an adjacent street — we have those conversations and really work to meet people where they’re at as we expand.”

Philadelphia is also working to build out a high-quality, safe and connected network, which it hopes will not only bring in new riders but also keep them riding. The city has consistently seen an increase in bicycling year over year and to keep its numbers growing, Philadelphia is in the process of converting to LED lighting citywide and making all-season bicycling more accessible through winter snow clearing efforts.

“We’re not the richest city but we try to leverage every investment we have to make Complete Streets,” said Yemen, noting that Philadelphia is opportunistic when it comes to development. “When PennDOT is reconstructing a bridge or a street is getting repaved, we’re filling in gaps and making bike network connections.”

While a score of 45 leaves a lot of room for improvement, we’re including Detroit in our list based on its progress. The city built its first protected bike lane in 2017 and by the end of this year, will have added another 43 miles of protected bike lanes. That dramatic increase in quality infrastructure has been bolstered by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who loves two-way protected bike lanes, as well as the transfer of key employees from the Planning and Development Department to the Department of Public Works.

“We weren’t making a lot of headway before,” said Erika Linenfelser, an urban planner with the city who moved departments with her boss, Deputy Director of Complete Streets Caitlin Marcon. “The Department of Public Works is the one that installs and maintains the bike lanes — for it to now have a Complete Streets focus has been a fundamental shift.”

Detroit is also relatively flat and blessed with incredibly wide streets, a vestige from the time when it earned the nickname Motor City. In the decades since then, Detroit has lost most of its car manufacturing business and its population, declaring bankruptcy in 2013. The city, which was originally built to accommodate 2 million people, now has a population of under 700,000, leaving those big streets with very little traffic. 

“We don’t have a lot of money but it's also fairly easy for us to go in and build protected bike lanes,” said Linenfelser. “We don't have to eliminate street parking, as we can literally just take out a lane that isn’t being used.”

There’s a general consensus among Detroit residents that safer streets are needed and Linenfelser’s team has been emphasizing the fact that more bicycle lanes and lower speed limits benefit pedestrians and drivers alike. Black and Latino residents make up almost 85% of the city and there has been a valid concern, often voiced by City Council members, that bike lanes “aren’t for them” or that they might lead to gentrification. In order to promote bicycling as an activity for everyone, the city upped its educational outreach, diversified its marketing, utilized social media more and partnered with community organizations.

Currently, Detroit is considering how it might grow its network as part of a larger Transportation Master Plan. Since the money isn’t available for a citywide network of protected bike lanes, slow streets with wayfinding signage will likely play an important role when it comes to filling in network gaps and making bicycling viable for less central neighborhoods.

How does your city rank? Check out our 2021 City Ratings and learn how to improve your score.

We’re proud to announce our Living Lab winners, all of which will create replicable programs for improving shared micromobility in low-income communities.

In 2014, the Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) formed with a mission: identify barriers to bike share and develop strategies to address them. By partnering with Philadelphia and its Indego bike share system—using the city as a “Living Lab,” or a testing ground for innovative solutions—the BBSP was able to identify replicable best practices that would make any micromobility system more equitable. This year, the partnership is expanding its Living Lab work to include four more cities alongside Philadelphia, each with a specific target area and goal for making bike share better.

The BBSP invited proposals from partnerships of cities, bike share operators and community-based organizations looking to pilot, expand, replicate or scale strategies and tactics related to a specific issue and historically-marginalized population. Projects could not include the funding of new bike share stations or related equipment, on-street infrastructure projects, general operating costs or anything related to a micromobility system that didn’t yet exist. Only applications from U.S.-based, nonprofit organizations or city agencies were considered. In the end, the BBSP received 16 applications from cities large and small across the country. 

“Being a Living Lab means taking a deep dive into addressing the obstacles that affect access to and use of shared micromobility systems,” said Tangier Barnes Wright, partnership and program manager at the PeopleForBikes Foundation, a founding partner of the BBSP. “At the end of two and a half years, the Living Labs communities will share unique and replicable approaches to achieving equity in shared micromobility that can be utilized nationwide.”

Over the course of two and a half years, the BBSP has committed to disseminating $200,000 in funding to each Living Lab, which will cover costs associated with proposals as well as technical support, scholarships and travel stipends for relevant conferences. Grantees will also have the opportunity to convene monthly and share learnings as a cohort. Follow along on the BBSP blog in order to track the work of each Living Lab, including deep dives into individual proposals, progress made and any challenges that arise.

“These five organizations crafted creative and thoughtful proposals to look deeply at how and why people use shared micromobility — or don’t,” said Zoe Kircos, director of grants and partnerships at PeopleForBikes. “We look forward to sharing the progress, challenges and lessons learned from these Living Labs in the years ahead.”

The following projects received Living Labs funding:

The Northwest Side Housing Center will work with partners to amplify the voice of youth in Chicago’s micromobility planning and implementation efforts. Teens from the Belmont Cragin neighborhood will help design and roll out a community education campaign that will focus on bikes as a way to connect the neighborhood to other transit options. Additionally, members of the Belmont Cragin Youth Leadership Council will learn bike mechanic and handling skills, which they will use to help educate their community about bike share and the many benefits of bicycling.

Building the Bike-to-Bus Connection
Detroit, MI

MoGo, a Detroit-based nonprofit organization, and its partners will work together to identify and address the technical, behavioral and structural barriers associated with bus and bike share trips in order to create better-connected transportation options in Metro Detroit. Feedback and data collected from local residents will inform strategies that MoGo will pilot and test over the course of the grant.

The City of Philadelphia, along with partners at Bicycle Transit Systems and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, will continue to refine and expand its ambassador programs and deep community engagement work, with a particular focus on the new neighborhoods that will be served by Indego's (Philadelphia’s bike share program) extensive expansion. Additional program offerings, such as the Indego Champions and Changing Gears programs, will also be scaled up based on pilot projects completed in 2020. 

The Portland Bureau of Transportation and its partner, the Multnomah County REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) Program, will help local community health workers provide Biketown (Portland’s bike share program) access, education and support for clients who receive county health assistance, all with the overall goal of improving health outcomes.

Red Bike (Cincinnati’s bike share system) will supercharge its highly successful Red Bike Go program, implementing and assessing a variety of new strategies to increase community involvement as it expands into two new neighborhoods. Its approach will include creative partnerships with schools and community-based organizations, youth ambassadors and youth-focused programming with the integration of art throughout.

Meet 5 Grantees Out to Transform Bike Share

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Deloitte, one of the world’s “Big Four” accounting and consulting firms, estimates that by 2022, the number of people who will bike to work in big cities across the world will double, citing technological innovations in the bicycling world being a driving force behind getting more people on bikes. 

As cities across the U.S. grow and change, so do the ways their citizens move about them. While these evolutions are usually seen gradually over time, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated the shift towards embracing alternative transportation methods.

Before the crisis, many American cities were already at the precipice of needing to find a solution for overcrowded infrastructure, namely heavily trafficked roads congested predominantly with single occupancy vehicles. After COVID-19 decimated public transportation ridership numbers nationwide, which looks to be a continuing trend as the months progress, cities will not have the capacity to operate if those who previously relied on mass transit and rideshare turn to driving cars when things get “back to normal.”

This is a complex issue in which scientists and researchers are working around the clock to try to find a grand solution, but for the time being, one thing is clear: more people need to get on bikes. 

A study published earlier this year by Deloitte notes that bicycles will play an increasingly important role in how people will get where they need to go, especially in big cities. The study notes the increasing amount of stress put on a city’s streets as populations rise, and how bicycles can help alleviate a lot of that stress, not to mention improving air quality and public health at the same time. 

Since the onset of COVID-19, a decrease in vehicular travel, resulting from lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, has already improved air quality worldwide. More people choosing to go by bike rather than car could help continue these trends, especially in big cities most heavily affected by air pollution.

While bicycles may be one of the oldest forms of transportation, modern technological advancements are helping make the bike a more attractive way to move about. Electric bikes (e-bikes), bike share programs and improvements in cargo carrying are all helping break down the traditional barriers that have previously prevented people from relying on bicycles for transportation rather than just recreation. 

E-bikes allow people to commute further, faster (and easier) by bike. For those living in crowded cities, they often negate the pitfalls of rush hour traffic and parking issues, which are becoming worse as cities grow in population. In 2018, the average U.S. driver spent 97 hours behind the wheel stuck in traffic — the equivalent of two-and-a-half work weeks.

Similarly, bike share programs (which are increasingly moving to using e-bikes over traditional bikes) offer the same benefits to those moving around big cities who may not be able to afford a new bike or do not want the hassle of storage and maintenance. 

The advancement of cargo bikes and cargo trailers are also a big step in helping people move around cities, answering one of the biggest questions when people make the transition from bike to car, “where do I put all my stuff?” Whether it’s kids, groceries, food deliveries or whatever else you can think of having to move around town, an increase in easy and accessible cargo options for bikes may be a big factor for people on the fence about making the transition to going by bike. 

Bikes won’t solve all of the problems overcrowded cities will face in the months and years to come, but they can help provide a much-needed step in the right direction.

The Importance of Bikes in the Future of Urban Mobility

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The Importance of Bikes in the Future of Urban Mobility