The bell sounds the same, but nearly everything else about Philadelphia’s bike share bikes will be different than your ordinary bicycle.
City officials are in the process of selecting about 60 bike share locations around the city to house bike rental terminals. They declined to give an official date, but say stations will debut this spring as phase one of a two-phase bike sharing program.
Among the likely station are the Philadelphia Art Museum, 30th Street Station, and Independence Hall.
Officials say they will select a couple of Temple locations for phase one. Sites being considered include 13th and Norris, 13th and Montgomery, the SEPTA Regional Rail station.
Cara Ferrentino, Manager of Strategic Initiatives for the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, said the stations could reduce bike clutter at bike racks around the city.
“We think that, having bike share as an option will mean that they’ll be more times when someone will be leaving their own bike at home because of the ease of checking out a bike in a matter of seconds, and locking it up somewhere else in a matter of seconds,” Ferrentino said.
Students say they like the idea of renting a bike.
“I think it’s a really good idea,” said Aimee Seu, junior. “I think that there are a lot of people that want to ride bikes places but are tired of locking their bikes and hauling their bikes in and out of their apartments.”
Senior Erika Firestone likes how the bikes can open Philadelphia up to more students.
“Even though I own my own bike already, I think it’s important as a biker to encourage other people to bike, and I think it will encourage a lot of people who don’t own bikes on campus to get out into the city,” Firestone said. “So, I think it’s going to be a really good thing.”
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