City’s bike sharing plan may not include Edgewater, initially
Bike sharing bikes from bcycle at Daley Plaza. Credit: Flickr/ambimb
As you may know, the City of Chicago is in the process of installing a large scale bike sharing program across the city. If you somehow missed that newsflash, check out this article from Grid Chicago. The concept, similar to iGo, is designed to add another dimension to public transportation whereby a user can quickly hop on a “shared” bicycle for a shorter leg of their trip to/from their destination. According to Wikipedia, there were approximately 300 such programs across the globe in 2011, in cities such as Paris, Boston, Washington DC, and coming to New York City this year.
While the city should be commended for taking the leap into the big leagues of bike sharing, one can’t help but wonder based on initial information if those of us in the northern-most (or southern-most) parts of the city will see the benefits of such a program. Based on the RFP that was issued last Fall, the city is looking to install 300 stations by 2014, and no station will be more than 500 meters from each other. According to the RFP, “Stations will be located approximately every 300 meters from the nearest station in most of the implementation zone, with stations located no greater than 500 meters from the nearest station in outlying areas or areas with lower demand. The City will be responsible for identifying the implementation zone, the locations and densities of stations, with input from the successful Respondent(s).” You can read the entire RFP here.
The initial implementation zone doesn’t seem like it will stretch further north than Belmont, according to Steven Vance, a blogger about sustainable transportation and urban planner. ”This “implementation zone”, as I understood it from the pre-proposal conference was just a guide for the proposer to help them develop their proposal costs. It’s not set in stone and bike sharing locations could appear outside the implementation zone based on (1) the planning process (2) outside sponsorships and station donation. The zone is defined as the lakefront on the east, Belmont on the north, Ashland on the west, and 35th Street as the south border,” Vance stated in a recent post on Grid Chicago.
So, how can the city leave out Edgewater from this great project? Edgewater is one of the most dense neighborhoods in the entire city, home of a large University, and comprised of many eco-friendly residents. It would only make sense for the program to include our great neighborhood.
