Philly bike share rolls through council committee towards Spring 2015 launch

The city of Philadelphia is another step closer to a bike sharing system. A city council committee has given its blessing.

Russell Meddin founded Bike Share Philadelphia. He believes the program will be a major win for the city. 

“It will help make it possible for all of you for me our fellow citizens visitors to Philadelphia to take advantage of bike sharing and bicycling which we all know is the best way to get around our city,” Meddin said. 

Alex Doty of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia says short-term rentals will help commuters who use public transit but have problems getting to their final destination.

“The idea is to encourage short trips, this is not the equivalent to a bike rental,” Doty said. 

Bicycle Transit Systems will run the system and the bikes themselves will be bought from B-Cycle, which supplied the rides for 25 other cities.

One issue that still remains to be worked out is how to make good on the city’s pledge to let even people who don’t have bank accounts or credit cards use the system.

Philly Bike Share is scheduled to roll out in spring 2015.