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Bike Share: A slice of Paris in Chicago


July 30, 2010

Mary Schmich



Read More: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...5781993.column

It's not every day that you can stroll down a Chicago sidewalk and think you've been magically zapped to Paris. But I was cruising down Ohio Street Thursday when — zut alors! There was a row of rental-bike docks that looked a lot like Paris' famous Velib' stations. Half a dozen guys were fiddling with the machines, making sure everything would work on Friday when Chicago debuts its first city bike-share program. There are only 100 bikes and only six locations, but if this experiment works, bike-sharing could become a Chicago way of life. To find out more, I called Josh Squire. He's the founder of Bike and Roll, which is managing the program.

Q. How did this idea evolve?

A. We started thinking about bike share in 1998. It took some time until the technology caught up. The city reached out to us to do some sort of pilot program. We were able to obtain a small-business loan to start and hopefully build a network of stations throughout the Chicagoland area.

Q. You've been in the bike-rental business a long time?

A. Since 1993. I started in college because I wanted to hang out at the beach. I went to the park district and asked them to rent bikes. They said no. I went back and said, "You didn't give me a reason why." They let me do it as a pilot program at Oak Street Beach.

Q. How much does this cost the city?

A. It doesn't cost the city anything. Since we put a couple of stations on park district space, if we get sponsorships, then the city will benefit.

Q. All the stations are near the downtown lakefront. Is this mostly for tourists?

A. Our idea is to demonstrate that this is viable for tourists, locals and area workers. As we grow we'll venture into neighborhoods and transit centers.

Q. It's expensive — $10 an hour if you don't have a membership.

A. I don't think it's expensive if you compare it to a CTA monthly pass or even I-GO or Zipcar. And how much does it cost you to park a car in the city?

A pass costs $35 a month, $25 for students. With the pass, the first hour of use is included. You have unlimited trips in that hour. If you want to keep it longer, it's an additional $2.50 per half hour, but we want to discourage that.

Dan Ioja, fleet manager for Bike and Roll, removes a rental bike from its dock at a B-cycle station on Ohio Street. (Chris Walker, Chicago Tribune / July 28, 2010)