The economic development nonprofit is spearheading a five-year, multimillion-dollar program that will offer 400 rentable bicycles at 40 stations throughout downtown, Uptown, Deep Ellum, Fair Park and Oak Cliff.
DDI’s approaches to developing how and where people access the bikes are aligned with several practices that bike-sharing experts say are necessary to get people to use the service. That includes starting service in the urban core, putting bike stations at public transit stops and using the program to give poorer residents a cheap transportation option.
DDI senior senior vice president Kourtny Garrett said that while Dallas may be behind some other cities in building a bike-sharing network, that delay gives some advantages.
“We’ve been able to really study what works and what doesn’t,” she said.
Dallas officials last year celebrated the start of a bike-sharing service that has been criticized because it provides rides only within Fair Park. The Dallas Observer reported that in the first six months of this year, 133 of the 250 times a bike left the station was for maintenance purposes or was suspected to be accidental. Another 44 rides were for under 30 minutes.
Bike-sharing officials and experts from Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., discussed best practices and approaches Tuesday at the Rail~Volution public transit conference in Dallas this week.
“It’s still a very new industry and a rapidly evolving industry,” said Laura Cornejo, a director for the Los Angeles Metro transit agency.
After years of wrestling with financing a program, that city expects to roll out an 1,100-bike system next year. Stations will be near transit stops so public transportation passengers can use bikes to ride to farther destinations. Stations also are planned for popular destinations outside major transit corridors.
“You can’t just have them at the transit stations,” said Matt Benjamin, a consultant helping develop the Los Angeles system.
Cara Ferrentino, a Philadelphia transportation official, said that integrating bike rental payments and public transit fare systems is the “holy grail” of getting more people to use both. Garrett said that DDI plans to do just that so that Dallas Area Rapid Transit passengers can seamlessly pay for bike rentals.
“That’s certainly something we would be interested in exploring,” said DART spokesman Morgan Lyons.
DDI has run financial and operational models and is negotiating with a funding partner for financing the first five years of service. Startup costs are expected to be $3 million. Operations are estimated to run $1 million a year.
Once initial funding is secured, the nonprofit will select technology, a provider and station locations. It also will work with City Hall on existing and planned bike lanes.
DDI has already received a grant from Wells Fargo that could help make the rentals cheaper for residents in the poorer census blocks that will have bike stations.
“We’re looking at how to create some type of subsidy for membership,” Garrett said.
DDI hopes to have service operating within a year of signing a deal with a financing partner. There are ongoing negotiations with an undisclosed company that Garrett hopes will be finalized by the end of this year.
©2015 The Dallas Morning News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.