Bike Share Program Approved For Downtown Los Angeles

On August 28, 2015 the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve bringing more than 1,000 bike share bikes to Downtown Los Angeles. The program is set to launch in 2016, and will eventually expand to other areas, including Hollywood, Mid-City, North Hollywood and Venice.

The Downtown bike share program builds on Santa Monica’s recently implemented program, which began testing earlier this month. That program currently includes 31 test bikes, with the full 500-bike, 80-station system scheduled to launch in November. A map of that system can be found to here.

The Downtown Los Angeles bike share program is a partnership between Metro, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). Bicycle Transit Systems, Inc. (BTS) and its partner BCycle. The program is aiming to integrate a payment system that will unify the county’s rail, bus, and bike share programs. It follows a failed attempt in 2012 to bring a bike share program to Downtown.

Under the new plan, Metro and the City of Los Angeles will share capital costs, with Metro to cover 35% of net operations and maintenance and the City of Los Angeles covering the remaining 65%. Naming rights for the system will be retained by Metro, with the City will retain advertising rights.

The program is a significant step in the City’s attempts to reduce congestion and increase mobility, particularly within Downtown Los Angeles. Coupled with the Metro’s expansion into Santa Monica directly from Downtown Los Angeles, the combination of the bike share programs in Santa Monica and Downtown looks extremely promising for traffic reduction.

The City Council’s announcement regarding the bike share program can be found here.

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