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A plan to increase the number of bicycles in the Bay Area Bike Share system tenfold by the end of 2017 at no cost to taxpayers was announced by area government officials today.

The plan would bring the number of bike share cycles in the Bay Area from 700 to 7,000 over the next two years and expand the program into the East Bay cities of Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville for the first time.

The Bike Share system was launched in 2013 with 700 bikes at 70 docking stations in Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Jose, San Francisco and Redwood City, While the pilot program has been successful, the bankruptcy of bicycle manufacturer Bixi has stalled its expansion.

But last October Alta, the company contracted to operate the bike share, was reorganized into Motivate International Inc.

Now based in New York City, Motivate has created its own supply chain for producing bikes and is ready to bring a significant expansion to the Bay Area, Metropolitan Transportation Commission Officials said.

For the pilot program, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and other local governments allocated $11.4 million for the bike sharing pilot program. However, New York has been successful in funding the program through corporate sponsorship and Motivate has offered to add 6,300 bikes using that model at no cost to taxpayers.

The addition would significantly expand the existing programs in San Francisco and San Jose while also finally bringing bike sharing to the East Bay. There are no current plans to expand bike sharing on the Peninsula, where the pilot did not perform at expectations.

San Francisco, however, has exceeded expectations and accounted for 90 percent of rides taken during the pilot program. Motivate would add the most bikes there, bringing the total to 4,500.

San Jose’s total would jump to 1,000 bikes, Oakland will get 850 bikes, Berkeley will get 400 and Emeryville will get 100, MTC officials said.

City leaders praised the proposal today, commending the bike share program for offering a first- and last-mile option to public transit riders, improving the environment by relieving congestion on city streets and improving public health through exercise.

“I can’t wait to jump on a bike when we bring this program to Oakland next year,” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement. “Active transportation improves public health, promotes economic development, helps the environment and is fun and affordable.”

Motivate has also committed to offering reduced cost options for low-income residents and will put 20 percent of the new bike share stations in underserved communities — particularly making sure there are stations beyond Oakland’s downtown corridor in East and West Oakland, according to the MTC.

“I’m encouraged by the efforts of Motivate and the cities to put equity concerns front and center,” MTC chair and Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese said in a statement. “I think my colleagues will give the proposal very serious consideration.”

The MTC Administration Committee will consider the proposal on Wednesday and the proposal is expected to go before the full board later in the month.

The bike share program allows members to pick up bikes at a station and ride them to another station at their destination. Membership in the program costs $88 per year, $22 for a three-day membership or $9 for a 24-hour membership. Trips of 30 minutes or less are free for members, 30-60 minute trips cost $4, and each additional 30 minutes costs $7.

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  1. Bike share failed on the peninsula because there were so few stations. I’m not going to pay $100/year to bike down Castro Street and back. Why aren’t there stations at popular destinations around town like the San Antonio shopping center or Charleston shopping center or Shoreline Park?

  3. There is a bike station at San Antonio Shopping Center.

    Putting one at Shoreline Park makes less sense. If you ride from downtown to Shoreline, it’s not like you’re going to drop off the bike there. You’d want to bike back to downtown.

    The BikeShare bikes and program are intended to be used mostly for running a quick errand or as part of a commute in an urban environment, not really for leisure riding. Any ride between 30-60 minutes costs $4 in addition to your membership fee, so the costs add up quickly for anything but a quick chore or commute.

    The boat center rents bikes for leisure riding; those are mountain bikes which are better suited for some of the unpaved trails at Shoreline Park.

    Most locals who enjoy leisure riding would own a bike anyhow.

  4. I have noticed a new bike station at Rengstorff Park. I would like to see a bike station at Whisman Park on Easy St. That would easily allow me to ride downtown and back home.
    Thank you.

  5. Has anyone here tried these bikes and would like to share their experience? I ride my own bike every day, so I haven’t tried them myself. But I am curious to hear what they are like.

  6. I think further investment in the program should wait to see if the mandatory helmet law passes or fails. Such a law would effectively kill the program.

  8. @Jeral – my read of the memo is that Mountain View will no longer be part of the BikeShare program …. unless it decides to allocate its own public funds to “buy in” the program.

  10. Bicycles and automobiles don’t mix and neither do bicycles and pedestrians. Bicycles don’t belong on our streets because bicycle commuting is far too disruptive and dangerous. Bike riders are too vulnerable to cars on our roads, and too dangerous to pedestrians on our sidewalks and trails. I think that any “politically correct” attempt to destroy our major traffic arteries in MV with “bicycle friendly” lanes is incredibly ignorant and destructive. We need to preserve car lanes all of the streets we already have, and we also need to keep parking on those streets. Mountain View should not pursue the politically correct path of giving traffic and parking lanes to bikers. Bike commuters should be kept off of MV streets, particularly major arteries. Maybe they should dump their bikes and ride our “wonderful” bus system, just like the idiots running Santa Clara County want them to do.

  12. @Jeral & Fou:

    The way I read the memo, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Redwood City will not see any expansion of the current program.

    Notably, Motivate acquired the operations of former operator Alta and the bike manufacturer Bixi is out of business. This means that there are probably no future Bixi bikes in the foreseeable future. The docks are likely designed to interface with a specific bike design.

    My guess is that the worst performing Peninsula programs will be halted and cannibalized for spare parts, both the docking stations (which are transportable, wireless, and solar powered) as well as the bikes themselves. Based on ridership numbers (trips per bike), I’m guessing that Motivate will pull the plug first on Redwood City, followed by Palo Alto then Mountain View.

    Motivate runs bikeshare programs in New York and several other large cities in the US, so I figure the East Bay deployment will be based on systems derived from those successful programs. Eventually, all of the current Bay Area Bikeshare hardware and software systems will disappear, replaced by the next generation platform.

    But hey, there’s nothing bizarre about that. The steam locomotives running between SF and San Jose are long gone, as well as the non-seamless tracks (no more clickety-clack) as well as buying tickets from the conductors. Caltrain is better today than twenty years ago, so change isn’t necessarily bad.

  13. The program failed because of lousy locations and lack of demand. Most residents have bicycles and will use their own for local trips. The main users would be someone who shows up without a bike,like a train or bus user.

    This is a silly program and a waste of funding. What works in SF doesnt necessarily work in less dense areas like MV.

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