Montgomery County Looks To Expand Bike Share Program
By Jim Melwert
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Montgomery County is looking into possibly expanding its "Bike Share" program.
A pilot bike-share program started in the spring with two docking stations, one at the head of the Pennypack Trail, off Huntingdon Pike in Lower Moreland, the other in Lower Perkiomen Valley Park in Oaks, with each of the racks holding six bikes.
"What we saw was that the bike share program in its pilot phase was working pretty well," says County Commission Chairman Josh Shapiro. "People were renting the bikes at a pretty clip and it's showing that more bikes were needed."
Shapiro says the county is asking bike share companies to bid on expanding the program county-wide with an option for interested municipalities to be able to jump in.
"We want to an RFP," he says. "Put it out to all different companies and see where we can get the best deal."
Currently, bikes are rented through a phone app by the company Zagster.
Since April, the county says there's been an average of 200 total rentals, the average being just under three hours. The majority of rentals, 65%, were done at the Pennypack Trail location.
