A new bike-sharing program could be operating in Syracuse by the end of the year.

The program would allow residents to rent a bike in one location and drop it off in another. While there’s currently no citywide bike-sharing in Syracuse, officials said a privately-funded initiative could be functioning by the end of 2018.

Mayor Ben Walsh proposed the bike-sharing program during his “state of the city” speech late last month. Walsh initially said it could start this summer. New York City famously launched a similar program called “Citi Bike.” That program is primarily sponsored by Citigroup.

“This is something that we have been looking at for a long time and the new administration definitely had put an emphasis on bringing this … this idea of a bike-share to Syracuse,” said Neil Burke, the city’s transportation planner.

Currently, there is no exact timeline for the initiative, said Eric Ennis, economic development project manager with Syracuse’s department of neighborhood and business development. The selection of a bike-share vendor will be made by this summer and if “everything goes as planned,” the program should be operational by the end of 2018, Ennis said.

The city will not be funding or operating the bikes, nor will it receive any money for the program’s rentals, Burke said. The private vendor that’s chosen as the primary bike-sharing operator will be responsible for maintenance of the bikes and will collect the program’s revenue, Ennis said.

Burke said in the past, bike-sharing programs in other cities have been funded by municipalities. But recently, more programs have been privately-funded, he said.

The bike-sharing program will have an economic impact by giving people better access to retail business and restaurants, Ennis said.

Bike-share vendors can submit proposals to the Syracuse Bikeshare Commission, a volunteer group that meets monthly to work with the city, in a bid to operate the program. The commission will choose what vendor might best support a bike-sharing program in Syracuse, Ennis said.

“We will have all the companies submit a request basically to operate a bike-share in Syracuse and we would go through the companies that are interested,” Ennis said. “We would pick the company ideally that would be the best fit for Syracuse.”

Adapt CNY, a volunteer organization that aims to revitalize Syracuse, has been reaching out to members of the local cyclist community about the bike-sharing proposal through their transit services department.

Ennis said Syracuse University, cyclists in the city and other residents have been supportive of the bike-sharing idea.

Common Councilor Chad Ryan, of the 2nd district, said the council is not currently involved in the project and he doesn’t have much information about the idea.

Ryan, though, added that the council will become involved in the project once the proposal moves forward.

“We feel like the bike-sharing will get more people on bikes and will create alternative forms of transportation,” Ennis said. “There are people that will hopefully use this to commute to work or commute to a job or to run errands.”

Published on February 12, 2018 at 7:44 pm

Contact Bianca: bmoorman@syr.edu