BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — The Better Bike Share Partnership has awarded more than $410,000 in grants to help increase access to bike share in communities of color, and to fund research related to bike share and equity.
The Partnership is a collaboration funded by The JPB Foundation. PeopleForBikes adminsters the grant funding, which is now in its third round. The partners include The City of Philadelphia, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, the National Association of City Transportation Officials and the PeopleForBikes Foundation.
"Cities, bike share operators, and community-based partners are eager for best practices and support to make bicycling and bike share more accessible and available to people of color and low-income communities," said Zoe Kircos, the director of grants and partnerships at PeopleForBikes. "We have learned from our last two cohorts of grantees and look forward to testing and sharing new strategies from our current group as well."
The following projects received Challenge Grant funding:
Charleston, S.C.: Just Ride – Equitable Mobility for Holy Spokes: $50,000
Enough Pie is partnering with the City of Charleston, Gotcha Bike and Charleston Moves to extend bike share into the Upper Peninsula of the city. In addition to adding stations and hiring local ambassadors, the program will align and partner with AWAKENING: MOTION, a series of public art projects that aims to transform the streets by showcasing what's possible when communities unite to create safe, connected, dignified transportation.
Chicago: Better West Side Bike Share: $28,000
West Town Bikes will recruit, hire and train 30 youth from neighborhoods bordering the 606 Trail to serve as Trail Ambassadors and develop speaking, presentation and leadership skills. Ambassadors will engage in community outreach and education, provide assistance to trail users, encourage use of the trail and of Divvy Bike Share, and provide information about Divvy and program memberships at local events as part of their 10-week program.
Detroit: Community Organizing & Engagement for a Regional MoGo Hub: $35,000
MoGo, Detroit's public bike share system, is partnering with Live6 Alliance, the City of Detroit, and the City of Ferndale to engage residents in Northwest Detroit and southern Oakland County in the creation of a regional bike share hub. The partnership will include working with community organizers and Neighborhood Ambassadors to bring residents, business owners and community leaders together in developing a shared vision for bike share while building support for expanding this mobility service beyond greater Downtown Detroit.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Better Bikeshare from the Start: $27,500
Bike Walk Tompkins – the active transportation program of Ithaca Carshare – will collaborate with community partners to hire and train five Ithaca Bike Champions to conduct outreach and education before, during and after the launch of a dockless bike share system in April 2018. The Champions will both support programming in focus communities and also share feedback on how the system works in those communities to refine and improve operations. One outcome is a set of shared operational expectations around reaching and serving residents in low-income neighborhoods.
New Orleans: Blue Bikes for All: $55,000
Bike Easy will focus on the 7th Ward and Central City neighborhoods, and on workers in the hospitality industry, as part of their efforts to introduce bike share to low- and moderate-income people and people of color in areas where transportation options are most needed. The program will work with partner community organizations and local employers to host rides, offer free trial passes and reduced fare passes, and conduct workshops and presentations – and to pilot other ideas as they emerge.
Pittsburgh: Healthy Ride in Your Neighborhood: $65,000
Healthy Ride will recruit, hire and train Neighborhood Ambassadors to implement learn-to-ride classes, registration events at local businesses and partnership organizations, group rides, and targeted neighborhood marketing as part of their initiative in the Homewood, Larimer and Hill District neighborhoods. New stations serving these locations will make bike share use easier and more accessible, and will help build on the ConnectCard transit integration launched in Fall 2017.
The following studies received Research Grant funding:
Drexel University, Philadelphia: Freedom from the Station: Spatial Equity in Access to Dockless Bike Share: $71,881
The research team at Drexel University will examine the spatial equity in dockless bike share – the equitable distribution of bike share bikes across the geographical boundaries of Seattle, WA – and the role that redistribution plays in this equity. Working with the City of Seattle, the University of Washington/Washington State Transportation Center, and dockless bike share operators, researchers will both measure equity in spatial access and seek to translate Seattle's experience into recommendations for equitable approaches for dockless bike share systems in other cities.
Portland State University, Portland, Ore.: National Assessment of Bike Share Equity Programs: $74,801.35
Portland State's research team will document the programs and strategies developed to address equity in bike share across the U.S., and identify the definitions and measures of success for each of these efforts. The result will be a catalog of equity approaches employed, an aggregated summary of key elements of each approach or strategy, and a record of which metrics agencies used to assess if they are meeting their equity goals, along with the various ways agencies are assessing their programs.
