On Wednesday, May 27 the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) unanimously voted to approve a motion made by Supervisor Scott Haggerty contract with Motivate International to expand the Bay Area Bike Share program from 700 bikes to 7,000 bikes in Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose with no additional public funding.
New Bikes and New Station Locations
Motivate unveiled a new model of shared bicycles, pictured below, and announced the launch an online portal allowing residents to recommend locations for new Bay Area Bike Share stations.
The locations of new bike share stations will be determined, in part, based upon recommendations by individuals and businesses. Click here to submit one – or several! – station locations.
MTC Press Event
Jay Walder, CEO of motivate, warned Bay Area residents; “In the blink of an eye. […] you won’t be able to remember when the Bay Area did not have bikeshare as part of its urban fabric.” Noah Budnick, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, called the bikeshare expansion plans “a gamechanger” and Scott Wiener brought up some numbers that encouraged him to vote for the bikeshare expansion; “we expect 2 million new residents coming to the Bay Area. We can’t afford a million new cars.”
Representing the East Bay, Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and Emeryville Councilmember Dianne Martinez spoke to bikeshare’s bright future in their cities.
Above; Bike East Bay Executive Director Renee Rivera speaks in support of MTC’s vote and looks toward a future where East Bay residents will be riding bikeshare bikes.
Bike East Bay looks forward to working with the MTC, local cities and Motivate to ensure a successful roll-out of a strong and equitable roll-out with opportunities for growth and expansion throughout the region.