Vendor Contracts Awarded For Philadelphia's Bike-Sharing Program
By Mark Abrams
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Nutter administration is delaying its rollout of the citywide bike-share program until next spring, to give the two vendors it has selected enough time to get the program up and running.
Rina Cutler, deputy mayor for transportation, this afternoon unveiled the names of the vendors during an event at the foot of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
"The city has selected B-cycle to provide the bicycle stations and technology platform for the system, and Bicycle Transit Systems -- you will get to know them as BTS -- to operate the system for the City of Philadelphia."
Cutler says the plan is to launch the system with 60 bicycle stations and 600 specialty bicycles, designed by Trek Bicycles, which already has more than 4,000 share bikes operating in 30 cities across the country and in Santiago, Chile.
Philadelphia residents will be able to buy an annual membership or use a credit card at the various stations. Visitors also will be able to access the system with a credit card (see related stories).