By Dan Bush
Whether or not you’re a dedicated Denver urbanist, it was hard to miss the Earth Day launch of the B-cycle system earlier this year. Starting out with 40 stations in April, the system now includes 50 stations with plans for more! You had better act quickly to get your last rides on a B-cycle however, as the system will close for the season this Sunday, December 5. The B-cycle folks are still on the lookout for areas to expand to next year as well as additional sources of funding to install new B-cycle stations. Denver had the distinction of launching the first large-scale bike sharing system in the United States and now large systems have been launched in Minneapolis and Washington D.C. with New York City studying their own system.
As a resident of Highland, I know folks in North Denver have been clamoring for more stations in the area, but it’s easier said than done after, including distance from surrounding stations, right-of-way access, and power supply (despite solar panels). Does anyone out there use Denver B-cycle regularly (or irregularly for that matter)? What are your thoughts on where new stations should go and how the system is working?
In future posts, I’ll explore Denver’s urbanism from a bicycle’s perspective, including new infrastructure, planned improvements, events, and more. Suggestions are welcome!
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Dan Bush is an engineer and planner with Arcadis US. Dan completed undergraduate degrees in environmental engineering and Spanish at Virginia Tech before following the sun and snow west to Colorado. In 2007, he received masters degrees in public administration, urban planning, and urban design from the University of Colorado. He currently serves on the Denver Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and is generally a geek about bikes and public transit. He always eats dessert first.
I love the sharing system and I love that people are actually using it. Much more than I ever imagined.
I’m with you on adding some stations to the Highlands. To me, it would make sense to add one to the 32nd and Lowell area as well as the 32nd and Zuni area.
Here’s to hoping that’ll happen by next year!
i bought a membership last summer because there is a station near work, but unfortunately not one near where I live. There is decent coverage downtown, but they really need to expand into the residential neighborhoods where more people actually live- wash park, highlands, south broadway, etc. if they accomplish this I am sure we will see more denver residents buying the annual pass and using it for daily errands.
I bought an annual pass last spring and used the system regularly to bike around the downtown area. Overall the program worked very well. I’ll echo Michael’s comment from above: I hope the system will expand next year to include stations at 32nd & Zuni and 32nd & Lowell.
I’ve never quite understood why the system is shutting down for the winter. With an average of 300 days of sunshine here in Colorado, it seems like it could operate year-round.
I asked that question to a B-Cycle employee once. They said that while they are not precluding the possibility of going year round some point in the future, they didn’t think it was wise to try that their first year.
Two reasons, primarily:
1. The bikes and kiosks have a lot of updates/changes that need to be made to improve the experience and reliability of the system. For example, the grips were not spec’d correctly by Trek and as such, some have gotten disgustingly sticky.
2. The economics of operating in the winter is a tough sell to a first year system. Where you might have 30 bikes checked out at all hours of the day during the summer months, you might struggle to get thirty bikes checked out during the course of an entire day during the winter. It just doesn’t make business sense.
Ken, you’re right. The discussion is there to change the operating months to year-round next year, but that isn’t a guarantee yet.
I live near 1st and Broadway, and while i’d love to use it its a lnog enough walk to a station that i just ride the bus instead. It sure seems like with the huge concentration of bars, restaurants, and shop on Broadway between 2nd ave and bayaud that there should be a station there.
They did a great job of covering the CBD and LODO but they need to focus on high density residential areas near downtown as well.
I live near a BCycle station but go to Capitol Hill, Speer/South Broadway area, and Highlands a lot for socializing and shopping. The stations are just not in those neighborhoods enough to justify me getting a Bcycle membership.
Most of my friends live in those aforementioned neighborhoods and none of them even considered using it because the stations aren’t near their homes but almost all of them have stations near work.
Typical of the UN that they can’t run a conspiracy year ’round.
It would make great sense to have a station on or east of Colorado on or near East Colfax, in Park Hill and perhaps near the Zoo or Museum. Nice and flat and bicycle friendly.
I agree that clustering stations around City Park/E Colfax would be a good expansion with the Zoo, museum, and a thriving section of Colfax. From CO Blvd to the Lowenstein complex and beyond… now Colfax + York is starting to pop. 7-Eleven is moving across the street (BTW, has anyone else noticed the full on assault 7-E has on Denver right now? Several new locations d-town and elsewhere) and will be replaced by a Brothers BBQ, Floyds just moved in, and other food purveyors are supposedly planned to hit the area.
I wonder if Bcycle has purposely stayed away from parks since that might encourage a more closed loop recreational usage vs utility.
I don’t work downtown and live in Montclair and don’t expect a station near my house anytime soon but I got an annual membership anyway. I wanted to support it and encourage others to do the same. I rarely use the system since when I’m downtown I’m often on my own bike. But its been very convenient at times. Its so easy to use with an annual membership since all you need to do is walk up to a bike and wave your card so you can quickly get yourself back across downtown or elsewhere.
The average zoo visitor has children with them who are not allowed to use the system. That was the major drawback to a Zoo-oriented station last I heard.
It’s nice that it’s available – but don’t most people have their own bike to ride? I bought a 2nd hand mountain bike for $50 and ride it everywhere in the city.
Just wish we had more dedicated bike lanes.
Do you ever ride transit? Even though you might own a car?
The ability to hop-on and hop-off the system whenever you want without carting (and parking) your own bike with you wherever you go can be a game-changer.
I have my own bike, but I ride DC’s bikesharing system 10 times more often. I ride to from my house to the Metro, and then I don’t have to carry my bike on the train. It’s fantastic.
or alternatively,
Ever worry about your bike being stolen? I ride B-Cycle into downtown even though I am a bike nut and own several of my own. Instead of worrying about carrying 10 pounds of locks and then fretting about my bike, I check the B-Cycle in and BAM – that bike isn’t my problem anymore.
I am happy to report that over the coming year we will see in increase in Bike lanes in Denver. Most notably on 14th and probably 15th through Downtown Denver. Also just opening are new lanes on Washington and Emerson from I-25 to Speer through West Washington Park. The new buffered bike lane on Champa street through Downtown is great for getting to Cherry Creek. Denver Moves will also feature lots of additional infrastructure upgrades over the coming years that will make Denver one of the best cities for urban cyclists. It’s key that cyclists get out an use these new lanes so the city sees their value going forward.
I use the bikes all the time to get around downtown, and do wish that there were more stations in Northwest Denver. The priority should definitely be in the most dense areas, where people live and work. These bikes aren’t really designed for long distance commuting, however — they’re heavy, and there aren’t enough of them to go around. Running errands, being a tourist, doing pub crawls, getting from one end of the CBD to the other, etc., are all much better uses.
It certainly makes sense to put stations in the vicinity of 32nd/Tejon and 32nd/Zuni, but one at 32nd/Lowell would require a few more nearby. As it stands, there are a few “clumps” of stations outside downtown: Capitol Hill, Cherry Creek, and the DU area. I’d bet that these are the least-used ones in the system.
Having your own bike is great, but sharing resources is better for everyone. If you only use something for 20 minutes out of the day, why not let others use it for the remainder of the time? It requires fewer bike racks and might even lead to a more harmonious society. The UN might be on to something!
Capitol Hill is very highly used by commuters and Cherry Creek is a popular tourist stop. DU stations are certainly the outliers.
I only have a nice mountain bike, which I would never leave locked up anywhere near downtown. I live in an old house in Baker, and I don’t have room to keep multiple bikes around. I would jump at the chance to use the bike program if they just put a station closer in my neighborhood. I suppose I could walk the 8 blocks to the nearest station, but I may as well just keep walking the 10 more blocks to downtown in that case.
I used to live a block from the 9th & Downing station. It was uber convenient to hop on a B-Cycle and drop it off downtown.
I got an email from bcycle this week-
“We have 50 stations installed around the Denver area. If we are going to expand our system we need additional funding to purchase new hardware and bikes. Denver Bike Sharing’s business model is simple: grants and contributions enable us to purchase the capital, i.e. stations and bikes. Sponsorships, memberships, and usage fees enable us to operate the system. Unfortunately our applications for federal grants that would have enabled us to double the size of the system were denied….
Denver Bike Sharing is reaching out to businesses, community organizations, and individuals like yourself to help search for/provide the funding to locate a station in your neighborhood. If you happen to run a business or know of a funding source that could be applied to new bike sharing stations, please let us know. We are willing to help develop proposals if there are funding sources that you believe could be accessed for a B-cycle station. The average B-cycle station cost is $60,000. This total includes all the hardware, bikes, estimated site preparation cost, and installation cost for a solar powered station that will hold up to 15 bikes – which is a medium sized station…
If you know of a location that meets the requirements above, and you know of a funding source that could potentially pay for the station hardware and bikes, please get in contact with us as we are in the planning stage for next year’s bike sharing season! We need to secure funding for stations by February 1st in order to purchase and install a station by June 1st.”
It looks like unless some coorporation steps up big-time bcycle is not going to see any signficant expansion. bummer.