We’ve got some more good news to announce amidst all of the Bike Month excitement: the Better Bike Share Partnership has chosen TransForm and Bike East Bay as recipients of the Better Bikeshare Grant.
This is the second round of grant funding that PeopleForBikes will administer as part of the Partnership, and the East Bay project is one of nine across the United States to receive funding. “Every year, more cities are adding bikeshare to their menu of transportation and recreation options,” said Zoe Kircos, Director of Grants and Partnerships at PeopleForBikes. “We are excited to partner with systems and their community-based partners to develop and test strategies to make bikeshare systems more accessible and comfortable for everyone.”
As recently highlighted in a Next City article titled “How We’ll Know When We’re Getting Bike Equity Right“, conducting early, inclusive and targeted outreach is an incredibly important element in the launch of a new bikeshare system and a key to its success. The work we will undertake in implementing this grant is modeled off of other meaningful outreach programs and tailored to the specific challenges and opportunities of the East Bay.
The “East Bay Bikeshare Membership Roadshow,” as it is called, will be led by TransForm. TransForm’s history of deep community engagement will help them work with the Cities of Oakland and Berkeley, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, and Motivate to navigate the challenges of encouraging ridership among people traditionally underrepresented in bikeshare. Our goal is to reach community members before bikeshare bikes are installed; if possible, before even their locations are determined. We aim to provide them all of the tools and opportunities they’ll need in order to use and enjoy the system when it launches.
Read TransForm’s article on the grant and the work ahead. TransForm covers some of the reasons why we this work is needed, pointing to ridership data from other bike share systems in the US and Bay Area demographics.
This grant will leverage other investments to educate residents about the system, encourage use, and advocate for stations in specific neighborhoods. TransForm and partners will also establish a bikeshare Equity Fund to provide free low-income memberships especially to those affected by growing displacement pressures. We look forward to partnering with TransForm on this grant.
Read more on the Better Bikeshare Partnership blog: ‘I didn’t know it was for me’: One city housing resident on Citi Bike
